Pumpkin Bars ♥

The Daring Bakers, they're killing me. Last week, I was mining my favorite baking cookbook and I swear, without thinking, found myself in the index checking the Ds for Daring.

You see, the Daring Bakers are a group of passionate blogging bakers from across the world who each month, from their own kitchens, cream and caramelize and create the same spectacular somethings. If you were "anywhere" in the food blog world yesterday, yum, did you see those cinnamon buns and sticky buns? These guys really love to bake and it shows.

Me, I love-love-love to bake too, though lean to 'simple', my own definition of spectacular -- especially cakes and cookies and bars and desserts baked on a whim with pantry ingredients.

Enter these simple pumpkin bars -- (1) yes, there really is a 'vegetable' in there so the recipe does qualify for a food blog full of vegetable recipes and (2) yes, you can really put vegetables into desserts. They're about an inch tall, with just the right cake-iness, just the right sweetness, just the right mix of fall spices. Then douse them in a sickly sweet icing -- no wait! don't do that! I sure wish I hadn't. A mere drizzle of icing would have been nice, just a bit of sweet to contrast with the spices. But all that frosting heaviness? Yuck. It got scraped off every single piece.

KITCHEN NOTES

• The inspiring recipe made enough for a 9x13 pan. I halved the recipe (except the spices and vanilla) for a 9x9 or 8x8, a favorite technique for baking for fewer portions with bumped-up flavor.
  
• The inspiring recipe called for browning the butter for the icing. The browned-butter flavor taste was hardly noticeable even with a LOT of icing, so I'd recommend skipping this step, especially if you go with the 'drizzle' idea.

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Today's pumpkin bars are dedicated to my Canadian family who will be celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving next weekend and are already beginning to search for Thanksgiving vegetable recipes and other favorite Thanksgiving recipes, including, the best part of Thanksgiving, eating up the leftovers! Don't miss out on the World's Best Green Bean Casserole and my own two favorites from my 2006 collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipes, the Maple Ginger Sweet Potatoes and Creamy Carrot Puree.

PUMPKIN BARS

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 2 hours
Makes 12 pieces

BARS
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer til soft. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin and vanilla and beat until well-mixed.

Stir together the remaining ingredients and mix into the wet mixture just until barely mixed. Pour into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool. Drizzle with icing, cut into pieces and serve.

ICING
(quantities are for the THICK icing shown in the photograph, make less if you prefer to drizzle, as is recommended)
1/4 cup butter, melted (for drizzling, I suggest 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla (try 1/4 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon milk (try a scant teaspoon)
About 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (try 1/3 cup)

Mix the butter, vanilla milk. Stir in the powdered sugar until icing reaches desired consistency.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Cake only, Per Serving: 132 Cal (40% from Fat, 5% from Protein, 55% from Carb); 2 g Protein; 6 g Tot Fat; 3 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 18 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; NetCarb17; 12 g Sugar; 30 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 64 mg Sodium; 41 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 2 points

Cake plus ALL the icing, Per Serving: 257 Cal (38% from Fat, 3% from Protein, 59% from Carb); 2 g Protein; 11 g Tot Fat; 7 g Sat Fat; 3 g Mono Fat; 38 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; NetCarb37; 32 g Sugar; 34 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 66 mg Sodium; 54 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 5 points

Cake plus the DRIZZLE of icing, Per Serving: 161 Cal (40% from Fat, 4% from Protein, 56% from Carb); 2 g Protein; 7 g Tot Fat; 4 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 23 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; 17 g Sugar; 31 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 64 mg Sodium; 44 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 3 points

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION
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Eat more vegetables! A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes. © Copyright 2007