I was so honored a few months back when I was approached by the Women's Ministry at our church and asked to do the baking of pastries for our Thursday morning Women in the Word bible study. I love to bake, but because I'm always watching my calories I don't bake around here unless it's the holidays. This has given me the outlet to make goodies, sample ONE and take the rest to my church girlfriends! I've had lots of requests for my recipes so I'm going to take it one at a time starting with what I brought today. This recipe reminds me of this awesome pumpkin roll cake my Mother n Law makes. You know the kind that is filled with cream cheese? This however is much less time consuming...yet it has the same taste. Enjoy making and eating/sharing these bars.
Here is what you will need:
Ingredients
6 T. butter, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups sugar; divided use
3 large eggs; divided use
1 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract; divided use
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder'
1/2 t. salt
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, at room temp
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a bar pan (10x15 inch) with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray. I like using Baker's Joy which has flour in it.
( I cut the parchment paper to fit perfectly in my bar pans : I doubled the recipe for a large group)
The parchment paper AND the cooking spray make for bars that won't stick and can be removed easily from pan.
. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Set aside to cool slightly.
Pour cooled, melted butter over the top of 1 1/2 cups sugar that you have pre-measured out.
Mix just until the butter is incorporated into the sugar.
Next add the pumpkin, 2 of the eggs, 1 t. of the vanilla ....
and 1/2 c, water until smooth.
once all ingrediants are incorporated, set aside.
In another bowl, measure out the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt;
Slowly, add the dry ingredients to the wet. If you have a stationary mixer, just let it run on low while you spoon the dry ingredients in. Use your spatula to scrape the sides as you go.
Once all the dry ingredients are incorporated, be sure to blend the mixture well on medium for several minutes until all is well blended and looks like this:
Next, pour the batter into your prepared bar pan. In my case (pans) as I doubled the recipe.
use your spatula to spread the batter evenly for even baking. Set aside.
Next it is time to make the cream cheese batter for the swirl. You can either clean the bowl and whisk attachment from your stationary mixer and use that, or in my case I used a different bowl and my hand mixer.
Measure out the softened cream cheese, remaining egg, remaining 1/4 c. sugar and remaining 1/2 t. of vanilla.
Beat until smooth and creamy.
Drop cream cheese mixture in evenly spaced portions over the pumpkin batter. I used a 1/4 cup dry measuring cup to scoop mixture out of bowl and dump onto cake batter.
Take a table knife and pull the knife tip through to swirl slightly into batter. (be careful not to rip the parchment paper!) There is no set technique for this or wrong or right way. I just pulled it through vertically back and forth in lines and then horizontally back and forth in lines until I got a desired marbling effect.
Here are my pans all ready to pop into the oven.
Bake at 350 degrees until center of the pumpkin batter (not cream cheese mixture) springs back when touched, about 22-25 minutes.
As an added test for seeing if they are done, I used a cake tester in the pumpkin cake areas to see if it came out clean.
Let cool COMPLETELY in the pan. To cut, take a sharp knife and run under hot water in between cuts to get clean slices. Cut in 2 x 2 inch squares and serve.
These bars are so flavorful and moist! ENJOY!
**This can be made in a 9x13 inch pan and served as a cake too! Just increase your cooking time by 5-7 minutes.
Store these bars or cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring to room temp 30 minutes before serving. (or eat cold..they taste great that way too)
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