I love M&Ms, so about once a year, we splurge and try to find them or a similar candy for this recipe. After Colin learned the letter “M” with M&Ms for his preschool activities last week, we made this dessert. It is so delicious and very sweet. It will definitely fulfill your chocolate cravings. For fellow missionaries, you do need the condensed milk, so you couldn’t do this recipe if you don’t have access to that. But the chocolate chips can be substituted with any chocolate bar you can find to melt for the fudge part; and the M&Ms can be substituted with whatever candy you think would work well on top. I substitute margarine for shortening and don’t put in any nuts.
When I got married, my sister gave me the best present–a cookbook of beloved family recipes. This one was in there. What a treasure!
____________________________________________________________________________
Recipe for Fudge-Filled Bars
Cooking Time Required: 20-25 min. Preheat oven @ 350°
Ingredients and Directions:
2 c. quick-cooking oats 11/2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. packed brown sugar 3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 c. chopped pecans
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 c. (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 T. shortening 1 c. plain M & M’s
In a bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add butter and mix until crumbly. Stir in the pecans. Set aside 11/2 c. for the topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into a greased 13″ x 9″ baking pan. In a saucepan, combine the milk, chocolate chips and shortening; cook and stir over low heat until chips are melted. Spread over crust; sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Top with M&M’s. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Ita Vita 
This is one of my favorites as well–I make 2 pans every Christmas and put it in all the tins I make up (with Christmas colored M & M’s–I think I’m the only one the family who makes these (besides you now). I used to do one pan with nuts, and one without; but this last year I just did them without. Grandma can’t eat nuts, and there are so many people with allergies–and I like them just as well without nuts! I’m glad you discovered this recipe in all those dessert recipes :).
Thanks for the recipe, and for the whole book! I love it. I think the M&Ms caught my eye on that recipe. 😉 But I also like that it only takes 1 cup of choc chips, which are hard to come by. I also thought of the seasonal M&Ms in the US, that you could do them for Valentine’s too.
Here’s a recipe for homemade sweetened condensed milk. It does require evaporated milk, but i think that might be more available to you. The ¼x the recipe is about equivalent to one can. The full recipe is for frosting.
¼x ½x 1x 1½x recipe
¼ ½ 1 1½ cups evaporated milk
¼ ½ 1 1½ cups butter
¾ 1½ 3 4½ cups sugar
Combine milk, butter, and sugar in a saucepan; stir constantly over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Boil for one minute.
To turn it into chocolate frosting:
Add chocolate and beat well for frosting
2 4 8 12 oz bittersweet chocolate
Thank you so much, Helen!! I’ll try it!