Pumpkin Bars

Ok, pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting are one of my favorite desserts. I love them. Pretty much anything with cream cheese frosting is a favorite of mine. It's a weakness. I made some modifications to my mom's recipe (no offense, Mom, just wanted to experiment), and they turned out really good--dense & moist. Zak practically ate half of the pan in one fell swoop, he loves them.

2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbl. canola oil
1 c. plain pumpkin
1/2 tsp. baking soda
dash of salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. white flour

frosting:
3.5 oz. neufchatel or cream cheese
1/4 c. butter
1 c. powdered sugar
1.5 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. Beat eggs, sugars, oil, applesauce and pumpkin until light.
2. Sift together baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and flours.
3. Combine mixtures.
4. Bake in greased 9"x13" pan at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
5. Cool completely and frost.

I cut these into small little squares, and got about 32 squares.

Pumpkin Cookies

I LOVE these cookies. They are the perfect autumn cookie and are easy to make. I have a bunch of recipes involving pumpkin I got from my mom, who had compiled them for a church activity years ago. So I used the recipe I grew up knowing and will pass it along to you. Zak requested that I try raisins next time, since it's more of a spice cookie. I told him that I originally signed up for plain chocolate chip cookies to bring to work, so I didn't want to change that completely. They are great with chocolate chips, and I'm sure they'd be great with raisins too!

1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, greased cookie sheet.
2. Cream butter together with sugars.
3. Add in egg, pumpkin and vanilla; beat until smooth.
4. Mix in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder; beat until smooth.
5. Add in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared sheet, bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

This makes about 20 cookies, depending on the size of the spoonfuls. I doubled this recipe and had lots for work.

Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Muffins

I made these with all the leftover pumpkin I had last fall. They were pretty delicious!

Filling
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg yolk
2 Tbl. sugar

Batter
1 c. sugar
1+ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
3/4 c. pumpkin
1/8 c. oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Topping
2 Tbl. flour
2 Tbl. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbl. butter

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.
2. Beat the filling ingredients until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, beat sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.
4. Beat in remaining batter ingredients until smooth.
5. Fill paper muffin cups 1/2 - 2/3 way with batter.
6. Add about 1 Tbl. filling on top of batter--be careful to not let it touch the sides of the pan.
7. In another bowl, cut in butter with the topping ingredients; mix until even.
8. Sprinkle on top of muffins, bake for 20 minutes.
*makes about 10 muffins, more or less

yum!