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Homemade for the Holidays #8: Pumpkin Pie Bars


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Years ago someone gave me a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Bars and it has been one of our favorites!  But…the original recipe used a boxed yellow cake mix, which I really wanted to NOT do.  So…in “Sheri” style, I looked for an alternative to replace the boxed cake mix.  Over the past couple years I have tried several different ideas, but none that really worked well for this recipe.  One variation I tried made the crust pretty hard and crunchy.  Well…since I recently found a yummy homemade yellow cake recipe that we REALLY liked, I decided to take that recipe and merge it with this recipe and oh….this is SO unbelievably good!  No, this is not a very “healthy” recipe.  It is pretty rich…but for a special treat over the holidays…you just HAVE to give this one a try!  Enjoy!

 

Pumpkin Pie Bars

(For Thanksgiving or Christmas)

Mix together the following ingredients and save out 1 cup to use for the topping:

  • 2 ¼ cups flour (I used fresh-ground whole wheat flour)
  • 1 ½ cups sugar (I used organic sugar)
  • 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt

Mix the following into the remaining flour mixture, then pat dough into a 9×13-inch baking dish:

  • ½ cup butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla

In another bowl, mix the following ingredients and pour over crust:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin
  • ¾ cup sugar (I used organic sugar)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 2/3 cup whole milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix together the following ingredients for the topping and sprinkle over pumpkin mixture in pan:

  • 1 cup flour mixture (previously set aside)
  • ¼ cup sugar (I used organic sugar)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ cup butter, melted

Optional: You can sprinkle chopped nuts on top too if you wish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Serve with ice-cream or whipped cream.


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9 Comments

  1. I really enjoy your site. Regarding the pumpkin bars have you ever tried gluten free flour blends or monkfruit in place of the sugar? We have a ton of food allergies here but I love to experiment with alternatives in recipes. Thx A fellow Kansan
    1. Hi Stacy! I think I did try it using gluten free flour in place of the regular flour, and I don't know why you could not use a healthier sugar option like monk fruit. I don't know why it wouldn't work!
  2. Hi Sheri. I need to give this a try myself.. I like bars easier for children to handle. Since they usually don't eat all their desserts just tops.lol thanks
  3. This oil lady is so impressed and excited with your website. Let me say thank you for sharing all those great talents. You, also, are a lady who wears many hats. blessings to you and all your family and all those who discovered your site.
  4. Please never take this off your website. I have written this down so many times and my children make it, then don't put the recipe back. Or as I found out later gave my card to one of their friends to take home and bake with their mom. Plus you could add after the for Thanksgiving and Christmas.... for breakfast! Since we use it often as a healthy (if not a little sugary) breakfast feast.
    1. How funny! I don't have plans any time soon to remove it, so you are safe! It will always have a home right here on my site :). Have a great day!
  5. This is good. I did sprinkle nuts on top. But I couldn't see using so much sugar (esp. since our tastes are used to less sugary things). So I only put 1/2 c. sugar in the base. With so much less sugar I only took out about 7/8 c for the topping and only needed 1/4 c melted butter in the base (instead of the 1/2c). So it ended up being less sugar & less butter. :) With our fresh ground whole wheat flour, sucanat and organic pumpkin from our CSA it turned out fairly healthy after all. :)

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