Two Pumpkin Bar Recipes and a Pumpkin-Crust Pizza
I realized just the other day that we don’t have many fall leaves here on the north Oregon Coast where Shore Pine and Doug Fir are predominant. But that’s okay, I can always drive to the valley to see the leaves changing. After all, my most favorite thing about fall is really the baking! Big surprise, huh? However, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by all the mouthwatering recipes and limited time to fit it all in. There just aren’t enough days in the two months I consider “pumpkin months” — October and November — or calories for that matter, to make and eat all the iterations of pumpkin recipes that exist. Today I’m sharing two easy sweet and one savory pumpkin recipe for you to try before fall flies by!
Pumpkin Bars with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Pumpkin Bars in the morning sunshine. Yes they can be breakfast too.
Confession. I’ve made the pictured pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting three times within a month, but who’s counting? Two of those times I halved the recipe, so technically I’ve only made them twice. The recipe is from Sarah Kieffer of The Vanilla Bean Blog. It is a low-difficulty and high-reward recipe that you can whip up when you’re pumpkin craving hits. Plus, I always feel like her recipes are very well-tested, no-fail recipes.
Equipment required: basically two bowls and a sheet pan. The full recipe bakes in a half sheet pan. I found that halving the recipe baked perfectly in a quarter sheet pan, which is also a handy size to pop in and out of the fridge as needed per pumpkin cravings. A sheet pan gives you the perfect ratio of cake to frosting. Trust me. Not required, but I lined the smaller sheet pan with parchment paper before baking. Then, after cooling and placing in fridge for a few hours, I lifted the entire cake out onto a cutting board and frosted it. Swirly, swirly. Then I cut it into equal squares, using my handy-dandy kitchen ruler as a guide. Then you simply lift the parchment paper up and put the bars back onto a clean quarter sheet pan, cover with cling wrap and into the fridge they go — outta site but not outta mind. Best eaten cold, they last several days in the fridge; well, depending on how many times you open the fridge.
Behold. The Frosting.
Before I move on, can we talk about the frosting? It may just be the perfect frosting. A combo of cream cheese and unsalted butter, mixed with powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract. However, I like it even better with about ½ tsp or so of vanilla and a heavy ½ tsp of maple extract. I tried the recipe the first time with maple syrup, but honestly, the extract gives it the punch of maple I was looking for. I’m a sucker for maple. Plus I love that the cake is full of warm spices … cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and a big pinch of cloves. I grated a generous amount of fresh nutmeg into my bars. Recommend.
I added sprinkles to my last batch. You’re welcome.
My pumpkin radar was apparently still on high alert when I visited my son in Seattle last week. His condo is conveniently across the street from Molly Moon’s Ice Cream. I was excited to try their Pumpkin Clove ice cream. But then I overheard the guy in front of me ordering a “split scoop” – I was like WHATTTT??? You can do split scoops? Tell me more! So … I ordered half Pumpkin Clove and half Melted Chocolate. One of the best decisions I’ve made all month!
Pumpkin Clove + Melted Chocolate Ice Cream. The End.
Pumpkin Bars with Gooey Chocolate
Pumpkin Bars with lots of gooey chocolate.
When I returned home, this inspired me to make the Homemade Pumpkin Bars with chocolate from Erin Clarkson at Cloudy Kitchen. These were also very easy to make and I had all the ingredients on hand. I did stock up on Libby’s Pumpkin Puree at my small local grocer, you know, before those other bakers bought up all the pumpkin! I used the rest of a bag of Ghirardelli semisweet chips and added in some chopped dark chocolate, with more dark chocolate sprinkled across the top.
I LOVE my kitchen ruler for helping me cut bars.
From the photos, I was expecting them to taste like a Toll House Cookie Bar with pumpkin. But they are not a cookie nor are they cake. These bars are closest to pumpkin bread in texture, but even better. They too boast all the fall spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves plus all spice. These are now resting in a tightly sealed container on my kitchen counter. Also, easy to walk by and snag a bite.
October is indeed a scary month around here!
Pumpkin-Crust Pizza with Arugula and Prosciutto
Have you seen a more beautiful pizza?
Speaking of buying all the pumpkin puree, what do you do when you have leftover pumpkin in the fridge and you’ve had your limit of sugar? You make Pumpkin Crust Pizza with Arugula and Prosciutto. I’ve had this recipe “on my list” to try for several years. It was published in 2017 in a PureWow newsletter. This past weekend, my daughter and boyfriend were planning to arrive in town around noon and I thought this would be a tasty little lunch. An eye-pleasing autumnal tasty treat that I could get going ahead of time.
The crust of this pizza uses instant yeast, olive oil and pumpkin puree. Did I mention that I love that I can heat hot water from my fridge dispenser to a particular temperature? No more guessing what “warm” water means. For yeast to rise, water should be between 105-110 degrees. AND, my oven has a proofing mode – kind of like the proofing drawers that the contestants use on The Great British Bake-Off. By the way, the ideal proofing temperature is apparently 85-90 degrees. No wonder it always took so long for my bread to rise.
When ready to make, I stretched the dough into a large oval shape on my Big Sheet pan and spread ricotta cheese across the crust. I think next time I will try dividing the dough in two balls and stretching one half of it even thinner onto this pan to get a crispier crust. I ended up baking it for 18-20 minutes. It was still a little more bready than crispy in the center, but a very nice texture nonetheless. Honestly, the pumpkin puree gives the crust a fall-ish orange color, but I didn’t really taste the pumpkin. (Probably because we are all conditioned to thinking pumpkin tastes like pumpkin spices.)
I decided I wanted the prosciutto on the crispy side, so I added torn pieces to the sheet pan for about 5 minutes. When it came out of the oven, I piled lots of arugula on the crust and some goat cheese crumbles vs. bleu cheese. Then I drizzled balsamic vinegar and a little of my fancy olive oil over the arugula, followed by flaky sea salt, lots of black pepper and I couldn’t resist drizzling with some honey. The recipe says it makes four servings, but I’d say it’s more like six. A tasty midday meal!
November Pumpkin Muses
Those were my October pumpkin tastings. Now on to November. I’m sure I’ll squeeze in a couple more pumpkin recipes leading up to Thanksgiving. I really want to make this Pumpkin Doughnut Bundt Cake also from Sarah Kieffer. And it’s mandatory to make some kind of riff on a pumpkin pie. And maybe this will be the year I try pumpkin pasta. For today, I’m off to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte ice cream on a cinnamon cone at Buttercup Ice Cream & Chowders in Nehalem.
Happy Pumpkin Day!