Almost-Famous Pumpkin Cheesecake

I am thinking I need to post a want add. It would go something like this - Needed. Recipe taste testers willing to help us eat all the things I want to make. I have SO MANY fall-themed recipes on my list to try, and truthfully, I haven't really started on any of them. I am absolutely paralyzed by the list itself, and the ability for the two of us to have a managable amount of food. Anyone have some teenage boys they want to lend me for a couple weeks?? :)

This cheesecake is the only dessert we've tackled so far, and I can't take any credit for it because the hubby made it.  He had a coworker that was leaving for a new job, so this was her parting gift. Not too bad of a gig if I do say so myself.

The recipe for this cheesecake comes from Food Network Magazine, and it really is one heck of a cheesecake. The hubby took this to work with some whipped cream, and not much of it made it back home. Our changes to the recipe were pretty minor - Greek yogurt rather than sour cream and cinnamon graham crackers for the crust. Crushed gingersnaps would make a great crust here too.

Speaking of cheesecakes, does anyone have a better method for a water bath? Whenever I try to wrap the pan and bake it in water, I always end up with a leak, so my new method is just to place a pan full of water in the oven on a rack below the cheesecake. What I don't know is if my new method actually makes a difference...Crack or no crack, cheesecake is still great in my book. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Almost-Famous Pupmkin Cheesecake
Slightly adapted from Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:
12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2-1/2 cups cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
2-3/4 cups sugar, divided
salt
2 lbs. (four 8-oz pkg) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
6 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
whipped cream for serving

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch springform pan. 

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt. Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Bake, 15-20 minutes or until the crust just starts to brown. Cool completely. If desired, wrap the outside of the pan in foil for a water bath.

In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2-1/2 cups sugar, and beat just until the mixture lightens. Beat in the sour cream. Add the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, 1 teaspoon salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Mix until just combined. Pour into the prepared crust.

Fill a large, rimmed pan (roasting pan) with warm water. If you wrapped the cheesecake, place the pan in the water and place them in the oven together. If you did not wrap the cheesecake crust, place the roasting pan (with water) in the oven on the rack below the cheesecake. Bake until the outsides of the cheesecake are set but the middle is still wobbly, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and open the door. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for at least 1 more hour, then place on a rack to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving.

SRC: Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and Pumpkin Hummus Pizza on a Rosemary Crust

This time of year, pumpkin recipes are abound. The sweet recipes range from pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, to even a pumpkin dump cake. It's even creeping into the savory side in recipes such as pumpkin chili and pumpkin macaroni and cheese. One thing that I can say I have never seen is pumpkin hummus, but I found it here on my Secret Recipe Club assignment for November on Noelle's blog, An Opera Singer in the Kitchen.

Noelle really is an opera singer (which I find amazing). Not only that, but she just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on November 2nd. Many of her recipes are vegan. While we are not vegans nor vegetarians ourselves, I had a lot of fun looking through her recipes. While I lingered over these enchiladas for awhile, I finally decided on this pizza. As mentioned above, I have never seen a pumpkin hummus, and we definitely love pizza.

The pizza came together really well. I mixed the crust ingredients together in my stand mixer using the dough hook, and it rose beautifully. As we are not vegan, I did add cheese on top of the pizza - a combination of Parmesan and part-skim Mozzarella. My only other change was to use less oil in both the hummus and to cook the onions/spinach than was originally called for in the recipe. Not surprisingly, we loved the combination of these ingredients on the final pizza. While there, the pumpkin flavor was not really prominent in the hummus, and it served mostly to make a really smooth hummus. 

Would I make this again? Absolutely. In the future, I may add another onion and a little bit more spinach to up the topping ratio a little, but it is definitely a meal we enjoyed. Thanks Noelle and congratulations on your new little one!

(Printable Recipe)

Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and Pumpkin Hummus Pizza on a Rosemary Crust 
Adapted from An Opera Singer in the Kitchen and Oh She Glows

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup white bread flour + 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, divided
3/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1/4 cup rosemary, chopped finely
2 tsp. garlic powder
2-1/4 tsp. instant yeast
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2/3 cup warm water

Pumpkin Hummus:
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. lime juice
2 Tbsp. Tahini paste
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Pizza:
1-2 onions, thinly sliced
3-6 cups fresh spinach, packed
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 to 1-1/2 cups part-skim Mozzarella cheese

For the crust, mix together the 1 cup of bread flour, salt, sugar, rosemary, garlic powder, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir well. Add 2/3 cup warm water and the oil. Stir well. The dough will be wet and sticky at this point. Place dough hook attachment on the mixer and turn onto speed number 1. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour gradually until the dough becomes cohesive and less sticky. You may add up to another 1/4 cup extra flour if needed. Let the mixer continue on speed number 1 for another 4-5 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth. Place into a bowl sprayed with non-stick spray, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 1-1/2 hours or until an indentation remains when you stick your finger into the dough. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees about thirty minutes before you plan to bake the pizza. If you are not using a pizza stone, you can preheat the oven immediately before baking.

For the hummus, combine the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. For the onions, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions, and cook 20-30 minutes until browned and caramelized, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When the onions are finished, add the spinach and pepper and cook 1-2 minutes until the spinach is wilted.

Roll the dough out using hands or a rolling pin on a piece of parchment paper. Shape a crust around the edges with your hands. Top with hummus and the onion and spinach mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and the mozzarella. If using, take the hot stone out of the oven and slide the parchment paper and pizza onto the stone. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted. Slice and serve.

Club: Baked - Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

I resisted as long as I could, but I am finally admitting that it must be fall. I have had a hard time this year getting "in the mood" for fall. I know it officially became fall on the calendar last weekend and football has been on for several weeks now, but I still am in a summer state of mind. In fact, my husband had to beg me this week to put up our fall decorations. It has started to cool down a little here, and I have been able to venture outside for a couple of outdoor runs. Hoping this will help me get excited for fall and all the seasons coming!

These muffins are our next recipe for Club: Baked chosen by Billie of Chocloate and Chakra. As you may have guessed from above, these muffins were my first venture into anything that could be considered "seasonal cooking," but I think they may have given me the kick I needed into fall cooking and baking. The savory nature of these muffins made them more of a dinner pairing than a breakfast treat in my mind, so I went completely into the fall state of mind and served them with some soup. 

I halved the recipe and ended up with six muffins. One thing to note is that the muffins don't rise very much. I took the advice of some of the other group members and filled the muffin papers pretty full, and it seemed to work really well. While pumpkin and cheddar cheese may not be first two flavors you would choose to pair, we really enjoyed these muffins. The cayenne and black pepper give these muffins a little bit of a kick, and they paired really well with our soup. My husband was even thinking further ahead in the fall season thinking that these would be great for Thanksgiving. We'll see :)

A big thanks to Bille for choosing another great recipe and giving me the kick I needed into fall! Be sure to stop by the Club: Baked page to check out the muffins from the other bakers!

Pumpkin Soup with Apple Cranberry Relish

Rain, rain go away. Come again another day. What a week of weather we've been having across the country! It's raining and cooler (highs in the 50's) here in Phoenix today. Since it's projected to continue for a couple of days, my mind has definitely turned to soup!

This is a recipe that the hubby's uncle first made a couple of years ago at our family Christmas, and we liked it so much that we got the recipe from him. This year, this soup has made an appearance at both our Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve meals. Soup has always been a tradition for both of us on Christmas Eve, and this one definitely fits right in with the flavors of the season. 

I've had a couple of people, my dad included, originally turn up their nose at the idea of pumpkin soup. Nevertheless if you can get them to try it, I promise they'll like it. Despite the apples, pumpkin, cranberries, and cinnamon, it's really not a sweet soup. There's hot sauce in it after all! To quote my dad after trying it this year, "If you would have told me this was southwest soup, I never would have known the difference." For the record, he went back for seconds =)

Try it out if you've got some extra pumpkin that you still need to use up. I had lightened it up a bit in the past by mixing part half and half and part heavy cream. You can use all half and half if you wish, but it won't end up quite as creamy at the end. Add what you like, just don't skip the relish!  

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Soup with Apple Cranberry Relish
From Doug

Ingredients:
Soup:
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tsp. salt
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. flour
1-2 Tbsp. hot pepper sauce
1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning
6 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (29 oz) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

Relish:
1 green apple, chopped
1/2 c. dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 c. red onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine the ingredients for the relish and set aside. 

Heat butter and oil in a large stockpot until butter is melted. Add yellow onion, celery, red bell pepper, salt, and the bay leaf. Cook until softened, about 6-7 minutes. Stir in flour, hot sauce, and poultry seasoning. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

Whisk in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Gradually whisk in the pumpkin puree. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cream and nutmeg. Remove the bay leaf. Serve in bowls with the relish heaped in the center.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Scotchies

Being as it's almost Thanksgiving, I had to sneak in one more pumpkin-related post since I know that for many the flavors will soon be shifting to peppermint, chocolate, and gingerbread. Around our place, we actually seem to bake with pumpkin through Christmas with pumpkin desserts often making an appearance at the family Christmas gatherings. Either way, if you are looking for an easier, more portable dessert to take to a gathering, these cookies definitely fit the bill.

If you have read any of my previous cookie posts, you have heard me profess my love for oatmeal scotchies before. Sure there are lots of other wonderful cookies out there, but oatmeal scotchies definitely take the cake (err.. cookie?) for me. They are my favorite. Hands down. So what happens when you combine oatmeal scotchies with this pumpkin cookie recipe that we devoured? Pure seasonal cookie genius! The thanks for these babies goes completely to Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod and her recipe can be found here. She's also got several other pumpkin recipes in her post if you're still looking for your pumpkin fix. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Scotchies
From Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
1-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. pumpkin puree
3 c. old-fashioned oats
1-1/2 c. butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix well. Next, add the pumpkin puree and mix until combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. 

Drop dough by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are set and beginning to turn golden. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Yield: 2-1/2 dozen cookies

P.S. Please excuse my pictures in this post. The cookies really are much better than they look; just check out Maria's pictures! The lack of natural lighting is really getting to me - it was completely dark at 5:30 tonight which leaves no hope for any sunlight left after school =(

Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Well, I found out that today was National Pumpkin Day, and who was I to argue? Technically, I didn't make these muffins today, but there has to be some kind of participation points for sharing a pumpkin recipe. I mean, how would we be able to enjoy pumpkin treats if there were no recipes?

Anyway, all silliness aside. Last week I was cruising the blogs looking for "healthier" muffin recipes when I came across this recipe on Mary Ann's blog Meet Me in the Kitchen. I wanted to make a "thank you treat" for the medical team that I had been working with for the past 4 weeks, but I wanted something a little healthier since it was going to be served for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and make my fair share of loaded baked goods, but I'm not a big fan of foods that appear to be healthy but really aren't. If I am going to eat 400 calories for breakfast, then I might as well have had a cinnamon roll =)

The verdict - the muffins were great and were devoured by my teammates. The pumpkin kept them nice and moist, and no one even knew that had whole grains and were low-fat until I told them. Better yet, the mini chocolate chips made them just sweet enough. That my friends is success. Check out Mary Ann's blog for the recipe. I made them exactly as written only doubling the recipe to get a few more muffins. It's a little late now for Pumpkin Day (which is absolutely my fault), but I won't tell =)  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Granola

It's already the middle of October, and pumpkin recipes seem to be everywhere right now. I, too, have already joined in the pumpkin madness, making these delicious cookies a couple weeks ago. My issue with these recipes is that many of them call for 1 c. of pumpkin puree, thus leaving me wondering what I should do with the half can of pumpkin sitting in the fridge? The answer absolutely is to make this granola from Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod. 

I seem to be on a granola kick lately (I've made 3 different recipes in the last month), but this is absolutely the best granola recipe I've ran across thus far. The spices, pumpkin, and maple syrup combine to give it a great "fall" flavor, but my favorite part has to be the chunks.The pumpkin puree and applesauce work as binders to make the oats hold together giving you larger chunks of granola pieces. Perfect.

 I stayed pretty true to Maria's recipe, only adding about 1/2 c. of almonds to the oat mixture before coating it with the wet ingredients. If you've got that random partial can of pumpkin sitting in your fridge, please make this granola. You can always bring some to me if you end up with too much =) Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Granola
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
5 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (can make your own)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. whole almonds
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. pepitas (or pumpkin seeds)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

In a small bowl, combine the oats, spices, salt, and almonds. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into the oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. They will be moist. Evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and stir. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and stir in dried cranberries and pepitas. Let it cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Serve with yogurt or milk or just enjoy it plain as a snack =)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and White Chocolate Chips

Well at this point, there's no denying it. Tomorrow is October 1st, so I think I may be finally ready to concede that it's fall. Nonetheless, I'm not going to lie. I am really enjoying these 75 to 80 degree weather that we've been having! It has made for some great runs!

A couple weeks ago, the family that I am staying with and I were on the hunt for a seasonal dessert. I had noticed this recipe from My Baking Addiction earlier in the afternoon, and I am so glad that we ended up making these. The 6-year old and I made them together, and we only spilled a little bit of oatmeal on the floor =)

It's not too often that I find and make a recipe in the same day (as evidenced by my monster bookmark list), so please let that speak to how good these cookies really are. I've made pumpkin cookies before in the past and have been less than wowed. Yes, they were good, but I've never quite been satisfied with the cake-like texture of cookies baked with fruit. Thus, enter these cookies. I'm absolutely convinced that the oatmeal takes these cookies from good to stellar. The cookies were still chewy, but they weren't too soft like fruit-cookies can often get. Better yet, they didn't get "damp" after storing them for a day or so. I am not sure if they're better because the oatmeal "soaks up" the extra moisture, but they definitely got an A+ from everyone in the house. 

Thanks Jamie for sharing a great recipe! Check out her blog. She has a lot of great recipes and also talks about other combinations of add-ins that would be great in these cookies. I still have some extra pumpkin in the fridge, so these cookies may be making a repeat appearance soon! Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry for the dark pictures. I'm on a longer rotation this month, it's often dark out when I'm home =( 

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and White Chocolate Chips
From Jamie at My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (you can make your own combo if you don't have it)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c. light brown sugar, packed
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. white chocolate chips
1 c. dried cherries, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat if desired. 

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract and mix well. Add flour mixture; combine until fully incorporated. Fold in white chocolate chips and cherries. Dough will be wet.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

Yield: 48 cookies

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti

I bookmarked this recipe about a month ago when I saw it here on My Baking Addiction. The cookie for The Cookie Carnival in October was my first time making biscotti, and I have to say it's been a good experience! My husband really likes them as he likes a crunch to his cookie, so they may be making repeat appearances in different forms :-)

Having not made too many biscotti recipes, I was a little worried about this one. The dough was quite bipolar - too dry at first and then seemingly too moist after baking. Even with the pumpkin puree, the dough was definately dry! I probably kneaded it for 5 minutes before everything looked like it was incorporated. This worried me for 2 reasons. 1) Why was it so dry? Did I add too much flour? 2) Are the cookies going to be really tough from all this manipulation of the dough.

See how dry it looks. I wasn't quite sure that I hadn't done something wrong because I had just finished a major exam that afternoon. Regardless, I proceeded. As mentioned above, I did finally get all the flour incorporated, made my dough logs, and baked for the first 24 minutes. After letting the dough cool for 15 mintues, I discovered my next problem. This biscotti was not completely crunchy already like the last ones I had made. In fact, the middle of the log was quite doughy. This made it a little harder to cut nice strips, but it worked okay overall. The orginal recipe only bakes the biscotti for 15 minutes in the second bake. After 15 minutes, my cookies still seemed a little soft, so I flipped them and put them back in for another 8 minutes. That seemed to do the trick; they set up pretty nice after cooling. They are still a little softer than the other recipe that I made (likely due to the pumpkin and brown sugar), but I had thought the others were too crunchy anyway.

Despite the troubles, this recipe was AMAZING! If you like fall flavors like pumpkin, I promise you will love these. Bring them along to Thanksgiving as a more portable form of pumpkin pie. They'll work better in that form to watch football anyway! Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti - Adapted from My Baking Addiction

3-1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 pkg. vanilla almond bark

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl; stir well. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixutre to flour mixtrue, stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. The mixture will be crumbly. It will gradually come together if you keep stirring.

Melt butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Add butter to dough mixture and knead until the dough looks uniform. Place dough on a floured surface and divided into two portions. Lightly moisten hands and shape each portion into a 2x10" log. Place logs 3 inches apart on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 24 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees and cool logs for 15 minutes on the pan.

Move the loafs to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 1/2" slices using a large serrated knife. The interior of each biscotti will still be a little moist so cut carefully. Place the biscotti cut side up on the baking pan and bake for 8 minutes. Flip the biscotti over and bake for another 8 minutes. Repeat once more for a total of 24 minutes for the second bake. Set all the pieces on a wire rack to cool making sure none of the pieces are touching.

While biscotti are cooling, melt white chocolate on the stove or in the microwave. When cool, dip one end of each piece of biscotti in the melted white chocolate. Place on waxed paper until the chocolate is set.

Flavor of the Month: Pumpkin Blondies with Cinnamon and White Chocolate Chips

I recently stumbled across a baking club here on bakeat350.blogspot.com called Flavor of the Month. Basically, there is a theme for each month, and you get to pick a recipe to make that fits the theme. It seems to be realitively informal - you bake along if you want to, but there's no formal requirement to participate each month.

The "pumpkin craze" hadn't really hit me until I made these. Truthfully, I had bookmarked a couple pumpkin-flavored treats, but no pumpkin flavors had graced our apartment until I made these bars last night because I have been on an apple kick. I've still got a couple apple recipes in the works, but in the past 24 hours, I have made big plans for my remaining cans of pumpkin! I found the recipe here on Maria's blog: Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria's recipes are always awesome! I highly recommend that you check out her blog!

These bars are amazing! They are more of a "cake bar" than a cookie bar - the pumpkin lends that texture to them. They also contain the coveted cinnamon chips that I am currently LOVE. I have never, ever been so happy to find a product in a grocery store ;-) My bars were finished cooking right at the 35 minute check time. As I've said before, I am suspicious that my apartment complex oven cooks a litte on the warm side, but you may want to check on these bars as they bake.

Enjoy and check out all the other fun pumpkin treats at bakeat350.blogspot.com at the end of the month!

(Printable Recipe)

Pumpkin Blondies with Cinnamon and White Chocolate Chips

Adapted from: Two Peas and Their Pod

2 c. all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 sticks butter, room temperature

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. packed brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 c. white chocolate chips

1 c. cinnamon chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. With an electric mixer, cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended. Add the pumpkin puree. Mix in the flour mixture by hand until just combined. Do not overmix. Stir in the white chocolate chips and cinnamon chips.

Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. The sides will pull away from the pan and brown a little. Do the toothpick test to see if it comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan. Cut into squares and serve.

See all the other yummy recipes at bakeat350.blogspot.com on Oct. 31st!