Bar-like pumpkin bars

Paul's pumpkin bars from Allrecipes. I have noted changes according to advice from the comments on that site to make them more bar-like.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar (less, still over 1 c.)
• 1 cup vegetable oil (1/2 c. oil, 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce)
• 1 (30 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (less than this--a little more than half)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (less than this--a little more than half)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• Chocolate chips or nuts?
• Need to put some vanilla in here!! Pioneer woman does 1.5 tsp for half the size recipe!

Frosting:

• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (more)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
3. Spread the batter evenly into an ungreased 10x15 inch jellyroll pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven. Cool before frosting.
4. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Spread evenly on top of the cooled bars. Cut into squares.

Shelly's Pumpkin Bars (updated with step-by-step instructions)

My cousin Shelly always brought these to Thanksgiving. As a picky kid, I refused to eat pumpkin or cheese in cake. Oh, what I have been missing all of my life.

I made these from her recipe (with my own slight amendments -- even family recipes I can't resist altering) for the first time this fall. These overwhelmingly beat out the Bar-like pumpkin bars altered from Allrecipes.

Since my husband's pants are really taking the beating from my cooking addiction, he requested trying to make these with 75% of the sugar. I will try this next time. However, I am quite averse to sugar substitutes, so I will probably do this by reducing the amount of frosting and the amount of powdered sugar in the frosting, and by just reducing the amount of sugar in the cake itself a bit. It will take some experimenting to see how far I can go.

Bars Ingredients

.5 c. canola oil

.5 c. unsweetened applesauce

2 c. sugar

2 c. pumpkin

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Raisins or nuts, optional

Bar Directions

1. Combine the first six ingredients (oil, applesauce, sugar, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla) in the kitchen aid mixer, until well mixed, light and fluffy.

2. Sift in the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

3. Mix until well combined, scraping the beater and sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is mixed.

4. Pour the batter into a greased (Pam works fine) commercial cookie sheet pan.

Note: In the step-by-step pictures, I was using a 11 1/2 by 8 in. pyrex, because I made a half recipe. The volume was not exactly half of the commercial cookie sheet I use for the full recipe, so the pictures in the pyrex are a bit thicker than what the cake looks like in the cookie sheet pan.

5. Bake in a jelly roll pan at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Let the bars cool a bit before frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting. I am not sure exactly how much frosting I use for the full sheet pan or how long I let these cool! I fail as a food blogger, clearly.

Something is missing from that pan!

Ah, here it is:

Where do these keep running off to ;) ?

Note: This Cream Cheese Frosting is my preferred cream cheese frosting. Below is the original recipe with Shelly's bars.

Frosting:

3 oz. cream cheese

1 3/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tbsp. cream

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 stick margarine

My sister's Halloween bash

One of my lovely Chicago sisters (who is far more social than me!) is hosting a Halloween bonfire next weekend (no rain please!!)

Because of my cooking addiction, my immediate thoughts went to which foods I could bring. She is providing the main meal and told me she was also going to buy several sheet cakes from CostCo (dessert for 70 people). Other guests are bringing the rest of the dishes.

Since buying sheet cake is clearly unacceptable when the sister you have invited is a cooking addict, I offered to bring enough for everyone. My plans WERE:

• Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting (these are her husband's favorite, and we are also celebrating his birthday at this party!)--I even purchased Halloween cupcake holders.
• The new to-die-for, amended Martha Stewart Mint Brownies. I want to use up the last of my orange colored, pumpkin shaped York peppermint patties before Halloween. So that I remember, I amended it by making it times 1.5 the recipe and baking in my 11.5 by 7.5 pyrex. I put half the batter on the bottom, and dusted the York's in cocoa and flour so that they would not sink. I put Reese's on one end. I added a throw together frosting of melted semi-sweet chocolate, milk, maybe vanilla?, and powdered sugar. Next time, I will add a bit of vanilla to the batter because it makes everything better.
• Mom's recipe Texas Sheet Cake
• My cousin Shelly's pumpkin bars. This is another sheet cake type recipe with cream cheese frosting--as an intelligent adult, I know this is fabulous. As a stupid kid I did not like the idea of pumpkin in cake one bit and refused to eat these bars. Why are kids so stubborn?????

Now, I also wanted to commandeer her main meal and make my mom's recipe for maid-rites (this is an Iowa thing, check Wikipedia if you do not know what this is!!) and barbecue pulled chicken (my long lost Switzerland sister adapted a recipe from somewhere for our long lost family, bulk cooking nights).

I WAS going to make the main dishes and brownies and freeze them (I have frozen all of these things with great success in the past) this weekend. BUT my sister cannot fathom that these cooking adventures would provide me with a glorious weekend while my husband studies for his upcoming exam. So she has ordered me to ONLY make the pumpkin bars and Texas Sheet Cake.

So this weekend to get started:

Frosting Practice: I have a very fancy cookware store WITHIN WALKING distance. This is very dangerous. Last weekend I bought my first set of pastry bags and tips (yes my first!!). So I may make the buttercream to practice making pumpkins and writing this weekend for the cakes. I still have to decide exactly how I want to decorate these, to mix birthday and Halloween.

Maid-rites: I may also end up making maid-rites on the chance my sister wants me to. Plus I need to have meals made ahead for the week, since cooking on weeknights is always a mess (literally and figuratively!)

Pumpkin Bars: Now, since I myself have never made pumpkin bars, and I have not had Shelly's in several years, I will do a test run in half a sheet pan this weekend. I also need to test how my despicable dark Chicago Metallic sheet cake pans do for sheet cake. They do NOT do well for cookies! Or at least, I cannot adapt to them. I am going to try half the recipe as Shelly wrote, and half according to the comments on Paul's pumpkin bars from Allrecipes to make them less cake-like and more bar like. If it fails, I will make Ina Garten's Carrot and Pineapple Cake into a sheet cake. I KNOW this recipe is amazing.

Pumpkin Puree: Finally, I need to test out Pioneer Woman's homemade pumpkin puree. Because I am now also a Farmer's Market addict, I must use the pumpkins I bought on an impulse there. And since I have never made homemade pumpkin puree, I must use Pioneer Woman's recipe, because she has not failed me yet.

Pie????: I have a feeling once I get going, I may end up buying more pumpkin at the Farmer's Market for next week, and some to try out Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Pecan-Praline Pie, because I have always thought plain pumpkin pie was boring and kind of a gross texture (yes, I said it). I am going to Thanksgiving for the very first time at my mother-in-laws, and I am hoping to bring the desserts (at least) to help her feed her RIDICULOUSLY hungry boys. If I dare bring a non-traditional pumpkin pie, I had better test that it is good.

Pie Crust: I will use the pie crust in my freezer--again, thanks to Pioneer Woman's recipe for Perfect Pie Crust. Although I need to watch how Martha makes crust in the food processor. In the future I must go back to my grandma's crust recipe, just because it is sad not to. Finally, I must try to incorporate some of the fancy lard I bought (again, on an impulse at the Farmer's Market).