Friday, October 19, 2007

what can't you do with a can of pumpkin?

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food." -- George Bernard Shaw

And with those words of wisdom I bring you food for thought friday. With pumpkins popping up left and right I had to share two of my favorite pumpkin-related recipes. Mine of course revolve around dessert although the first one is actually a healthy version of my previous pumpkin cookie recipe. But trust me, healthy doesn't mean it's not tasty--it means you can eat twice as many (not true for the pumpkin bars...sorry!)
Easy Pumpkin Cookies
1 (18.25 ounce) spice cake mix
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until well combined. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until set. Option: leave out chocolate chips and drizzle cream cheese frosting over the top.


Pumpkin Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 c sugar
1 c vegetable oil
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
2 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Icing
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese frosting, softened
2 c confectioner's sugar
1/4 c butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 T milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Pour into an ungreased 15" x 10" x 1" baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely.

For icing, beat cream cheese, sugar, butter and vanilla in a small mixing bowl. Add enough of the milk to achieve desired spreading consistency. Spread over bars.
If you have a favorite recipe using canned pumpkin please share it with us. There are always more than enough cans of pumpkin in my pantry! --Emily

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made the pumpkin squares for a church activity and they were soo good!! Let me expand, my husband licked the icing bowl clean and he also gorged himself on them at the party, and everyone loved them! MMmm! Thanks for the recipe!

the girls of gt said...

Thanks for the review on the recipe. Glad to hear someone else can't stop at just one! If you have a favorite recipe using canned pumpkin please share it. As much as I love pumpkin cookies I can get burned out after a few dozen!