Pumpkin! In a bar form! But, really, PUMPKIN!

Okay, yes. Fine. I made something with pumpkin. I know everyone is already sick of hearing about “pumpkin this” and “pumpkin that,” but give a girl a break! It’s almost Halloween and I want pumpkin!

Post-oven, pre-icing, mid-delicious.

Pinterest was the first place I turned to to find a recipe this week and it definitely paid off. Pinterest is nuts for pumpkin. But we knew that.

This recipe is super easy, except for separating the egg whites. The hardest part is waiting for the bars to cool to start frosting.

Here is the recipe I based my pumpkin bars off of from SheKnows.com. There are two other options for pumpkin deserts on the page for your baking pleasure.

• Ingredients:
• 8 x 8 inch baking dish
• Baking spray
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (The recipe suggests 2/3 cup Greek yogurt instead of the applesauce and vegetable oil, but I didn’t have that)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 egg whites
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups flour
  

  Instead of pumpkin, use these.

• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, which I do not, use nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and ginger or some combination therefore)
• For the icing:
• 5 oz light cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your baking dish.
2. Combine the pumpkin, applesauce and oil (or yogurt!), vanilla, sugar and egg whites in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. Add the dry ingredients directly to the bowl: baking soda, baking powder, flour, salt and spices. Mix again. (I told you this was easy!)
   

   So fluffy. (Pumpkin.)

4. Pour (or spoon) in to the baking dish and spread out evenly. Wipe off edges to prevent burned bits.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes. Test if the bars are done by putting a toothpick or knife in it and watching for it to come out clean.
6. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla together. If you have an electric mixer, lucky you. Use that. If you don’t, try heating the cream cheese in the microwave on half power for about 30 seconds before you mix it all together.
7. Once the bars are cool to the touch, go ahead and ice them. Then cut into manageable pieces and eat up!
   

   Finally, iced and ready to eat!

ERMAHGERD PERMPKEN

Some thoughts I had while baking:

-I didn’t realize until I was writing this post afterwards that I used 2/3 cup of applesauce and 1/3 cup of oil. MY BAD. They still turned out delicious, just extra moist. So if you want some really moist pumpkin bars, make the mistake I made but do it on purpose.

-The recipe calls for nuts (chopped almonds) to sprinkle over the top of the bars. I don’t really like nuts in my foot. Unless it’s trail mix. Or a bowl of mixed nuts.

Check out my other posts: melted cinnamon rolls, fajita stir-fry and sweet and sour chicken.

What pumpkin recipes are you making this season, VoxTalk readers? Tweet us your photos! @Voxmag