Spooktacular Recipe

First off, Happy Halloween Spooktacular and welcome to the week-long celebration on Nights of Passion where we talk reading, writing, life and everything Halloween. And to top this celebration off, we will be raffling off prizes! Enjoy and don’t forget to check back in from now until the 31st of October for all the great prizes we’ll be giving away! You have until the 31st of October at 12 p.m. Eastern time to enter and win.

And now for this week’s blog, I have a couple things to share. The first, I mentioned a couple blogs ago… I’m in the midst of really enjoying this fall season. My family and I moved from the desert to the east coast a few months ago and let’s just say the holidays came early to my house. That being said, I’ve done a lot of experimenting and wanted to share a pumpkin bar recipe that has been a big hit in my household:

TK’s Pumpkin Pie Bars:

Ingredients:

Bar crust:

1 cup
all-purpose flour


½ cup
old-fashioned or instant oats


½ cup
packed brown sugar


½ cup
butter or margarine, softened

 

Pumpkin pie filling:

1 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (this makes it creamier)

1 pie pumpkin (or a 15-ounce can of pure pumpkin puree)

1 12-ounce can of evaporated milk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon

¼ teaspoon of ground cloves

¼ teaspoon of nutmeg

¼ teaspoon of ground ginger

¼ teaspoon salt

Bar crust:

 

To make the crust: Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13 inch pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar and butter in small mixer bowl. Beat at low speed until mixture is combined and crumbly. Press into the bottom of your 9×13 inch pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. You can get creative hear by adding toasted pecans and combining all of these in the food processor.

 

Pumpkin Filling:

In a small bowl, whisk the spices and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Whisk in the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk, then whisk in the pumpkin puree and the evaporated milk until smooth. If you are using a real pie pumpkin you will need to cut it in half, clean out the seeds and place it cut side down in about 1 inch of water. I then roast it in the oven for about 40-45 minutes and let it cool before I scoop out the pumpkin and puree it. It is a bit of extra work but it is soooo worth it!

Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the filling is fully set. You can get more creative by adding a pecan or struesel topping about half way through the baking process. I personally love the taste of the pumpkin and don’t like to overly sweet.

Once it is done, transfer the pan to a rack and let cool completely. Cut into bars and serve with whipped cream.

I’ve spent the past few weeks baking these (off and on) along with other recipes. They are a great treat and I highly recommend sharing them with friends and family this Halloween. And speaking of Halloween, do you all have plans this year and if so, what are they?

This year, I will be sitting out on my driveway with food and treats to share with family and friends. I love watching kids come by all dressed up. My two little ones have chosen to be an entomologist (I know!) and Zorro.

And now for the fun part. For those of you who have stuck with me this far here is the contest:

Please share your Halloween plans in the comments (along with your email) and you’ll be entered in a random raffle to win a $20.00 Amazon gift card. This contest is worldwide (as long as I can email you an Amazon gift card) and ends at midnight Eastern Time on Oct. 31, 2017. Winners will be announced on November 1st. Void where prohibited by law. Good luck and thanks for sharing!

 

 

Filed under: A writer's life, romance, Toni Kelly