Pumpkin Spice Bars

It’s kind of like Christmas Day when our Food Network Magazine comes in the mail. We can’t wait to sit and drool over it’s pages and make an evil plan of the order in which we will conquer it’s recipes. In every issue, you get a little insert, where they feature 50 things – sometimes it’s “50 Things To Do With A Jar Of Spaghetti Sauce” or “50 Breakfasts On The Fly” or “50 Pies.” The one that came a few months back was a combination of our sweetest dreams and worst nightmares: “50 bar cookies.” Nooooooooooo! Mom knew she was in trouble. She stared at the thing for like an hour straight the first day, reading every ingredient of all 50 bars to determine what her favorites would be. This cookie bar is crumbly and fabulous for fall because of the spicy pumpkin butter layer. These are especially ideal if your favorite part of a pumpkin pie is the crust.

Tip (unsponsored): We love Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter. These bars require 1.5 cups and each jar is about 1 cup so be sure and grab 2 jars so you aren’t short or your bars will come up short (in moisture and flavor. You will use 1.5 jars of T.J.’s pumpkin butter). We use both “old fashioned” oats and “quick” oats for this recipe because we enjoy the texture that the thicker old fashioned oats provide but using too many of these hearty oats risks resulting in a cookie bar that is too firm and chewy. 3/4 cup of each seems to be a great combination.

Gosh, these are SO soft and buttery. Have your kids help you dump ingredients, press the dough into the pan, spread the pumpkin butter and crumble the dough on top.

Adapted from: Pumpkin Spice Bars

Pumpkin Spice Bars

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Active time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Food Network Kitchen

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 9X13 inch pan

Ingredients

• 2¼ cups flour
• 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1.5 cups rolled oats (we like a combo of ¾ cup "old fashioned" oats and ¾ cup "quick" oats)
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt.
• 3 sticks softened butter
• 1.5 cups pumpkin butter (1.5 jars if you get yours at Trader Joe's)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the flour with the pumpkin pie spice, then add the oats, confectioners' sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Work in the butter with your fingers until large clumps form.
4. Line 9x13 pan with parchment and allow it to overhang so you can pull the bars out when cooled.
5. Press three-quarters of the dough into the pan.
6. Spread with the pumpkin butter.
7. Crumble the remaining dough over the top.
8. Bake until lightly browned, start checking at 30 minutes. We find that these are perfect when we turn off the oven after 30 minutes of baking, then let them remain in the oven for about 10 more minutes while the oven cools down.

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