Satisfy my craving for baked goods. Last night, I was craving something loaded with chocolate, but not just chocolate. I was also craving something thicker than a cookie, but cookie-like. To celebrate the season, I decided on Bake at 350's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars.
I made a few changes. First off, I like my bars thick. I doubled the recipe and baked the bars in an 8x8" baking dish. I reduced the sugar, increased the salt and reduced all of the spices (I didn't think pumpkin pie spices and chocolate would taste good together because I'm not a huge fan of chocolate with cinnamon). I added butterscotch chips for added flavor.
Materials
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
scant 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
semi-sweet chocolate chips & butterscotch chips
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the pumpkin until fully incorporated.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
5. Fold in enough chocolate chips to satisfy your chocolate fix.
6. Spread the dough in the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with butterscotch chips.
7. Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before cutting.
Results
These are pretty good and did satisfy my craving for baked goods. The flavor is a little weird with chocolate and the pumpkin pie spices. The butterscotch flavor works well with the pumpkin.
Discussion
These bars are OK as is, but could be better. Because the pumpkin pie spices didn't work with chocolate but the butterscotch went well with the bars as a whole, I can see taking this recipe in two completely different directions. Option 1: Omit the pumpkin pie spices all together and increase the amount of butterscotch chips (add some to the dough). Option 2: Increase the pumpkin pie spices and swap the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips.
In the end, I wished I had just made normal chocolate chip cookie bars. But, all is not lost, because I have ideas for how to improve the recipe. I'll be sure to update if I try them again to improve the recipe. What would be even better is if I could convince a friend to try improving it and letting me be the taste tester!
Supplementary Materials
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