Oreo Shazam Bars

Q: Dear Recipe Doctor, my whole family is entrusting you with our recipe for Oreo Shazam Bars--needless to say we make them often. Can you come up with a more healthful version that works really well? 

A: Believe it or not, I tested out the reduced fat & calorie version of this recipe first thing in the morning. By the time they cooled It was past nine AM and I hadn't had a chance to eat anything yet. Guess what I had for breakfast? First I broke off a little piece--you know, just to make sure it "turned out". It tasted so yummy I broke off another chunk. Then I decided to cut it into bars and had to finish off the would-be square that had a two chunks missing.  Take it from me, these bars are terrific. I'm not a big OREO cookie fan either. I'm more the Mystic Mint or pink and white animal cookies type. But let me tell you, these bars would convert anyone. The Oreo cookies are processed into crumbs and blended with melted butter to make a crust. Layers of coconut, white chocolate chips, nuts, and chopped Oreo cookies are sprinkled on top. Sweetened condensed milk is drizzled over the top and the bars are ready to bake.  I switched to reduced fat Oreo cookies and cut out the top layer of chopped Oreo cookies (they don't add that much). I used half of the butter called for and made up the difference with chocolate syrup. I left the coconut and white chocolate chips and pecans alone (wouldn't you?) and used the fat free sweetened condensed milk available instead of regular. Doing this cut the fat almost in half and brought the calories down from 202 to 162 per bar.

Oreo Shazam Bars
Serves 24 (24 bars)
The original recipe contains 202 calories, 11 g fat, 5 g saturated fat,
and 12 mg cholesterol.

20 Reduced Fat OREO sandwich cookies
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 cup shredded flaked coconut 
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like using pecans)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Add Oreo cookies to food processor;
  process into crumbs and add to mixing bowl.
  
• Add butter and chocolate syrup to small microwave-safe bowl and heat in microwave briefly until butter is almost melted. Stir until butter has finished melting. Drizzle mixture over the cookie crumbs and mix well.
  
• Coat a 9x9x2-inch baking dish with canola cooking spray. Press crumb mixture over bottom of prepared pan, pressing lightly. 
  
• Layer coconut, chips, nuts evenly in pan; drizzle evenly with condensed milk. 
  
• Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and set. Cool completely. Cut into 24 bars.

Per bar: 162 calories, 2.5 g protein, 24 g carbohydrate, 6.5 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 4 mg cholesterol, .5 g fiber, 95 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 37 percent.