I never knew how much I loved pumpkin flavored food until this fall and let me tell you, I am now obsessed. They just remind me so much of fall and the holidays that it just brings out such a good feeling and flavor. So in light of this love for pumpkin, I baked something else that incorporated it. I was going to have dinner with a couple of my friends at a friends house so I offered to bring dessert because I found a recipe that looked so amazing, I just had to try it soon! This was the perfect opportunity. I found this recipe on Pinterest yet again and browsing that site is becoming a problem haha. The recipe I found was for pumpkin caramel chocolate chip cookie bars. As always, I tweaked it a little bit so here is what I used to make this delicious taste of fall...
Crust*:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
*I had to make an additional half batch of the crust recipe because I didn't have enough to cover the inside but I think I used too much for the crust so you may not have to do that.
Filling:
1 jar (12.25 oz.) caramel topping (1 cup)
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
First things first, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I sprayed a 13x9-inch baking pan with cooking spray to bake them in. I then combined all of the ingredients for the crust in a large bowl with a mixer on low speed until well blended together. The recipe says to reserve half of the mixture for the topping, which I thought I did but apparently not, and place the other half on the bottom of the greased pan. I then put the crust in the oven for 10 minutes.
Pre-mixing
Post-mixing
Bottom layer of the bars
While the crust was cooking, I started to work on the filling. This is where I didn't read the recipe right because I was in a hurry...surprise right? I was supposed to just combine the jar of caramel topping with 3 tablespoons of flour and blend them together but I also added all the chocolate chips to the mixture. I thought I was supposed to add everything together but then when I read the recipe again, I realized that was definitely not the case haha.
Caramel mixture for the filling...oops
After the crust had baked for 10 minutes, I took it out and began to spread the caramel mixture on top of it. It wasn't spreading very well because it was so thick and in the original recipe you are supposed to drizzle the caramel on top of the chocolate chips. This would work much better so when you make these bars, sprinkle all the chocolate chips on top of the crust and then drizzle the caramel over the chocolate chips. This was also the time that I decided to add the white chocolate chips as well because you can never have too many chocolate chips and I had them.
Bars with filling poured on top
After I screwed up the filling (it ended up turning out good though so now worries), I tried to add the remaining crust to the top...I didn't have nearly enough. This is when I decided to make a half batch of the crust recipe. I whipped it up quickly and added it to the top and it barely covered the whole thing. Next time I will definitely use less of the crust recipe on the bottom layer. I then put the bars back in the oven for about 22 minutes to bake until they were golden brown. They looked perfect when they came out of the oven and I let them cool as long as I could until I had to run out the door.
Pre 2nd baking
The recipe says to refrigerate them for about 1-2 hours and once I got to my friend's house, I put them in the refrigerator and let them cool for about an 1-2 hours. After we finished dinner, I took them out and prepared to serve them. They were a little difficult to cut because they were so cold but we used a sharp knife and got them out. The bars were like eating fall...they were amazing. I honestly couldn't stop eating them and everyone absolutely loved them! We didn't finish them all so I took them home and shared them with my roommates and a couple other friends and got nothing but positive feedback back. Next time I will definitely read the directions better and maybe add pretzels for a little crunch because I love me some crunch. If you like pumpkin, I would definitely make these but honestly the pumpkin flavor was not overwhelming so if you're not a huge pumpkin fan, you will still love them. They're a great fall treat so make them!
Finished product
YUMMM
No comments:
Post a Comment