Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Hello hello! I am sorry for the long delay between posts, but I still don't have a functioning laptop at home at the moment. :( I'm doing my best to bring you some recipes any way I can though! As I mentioned last week, I have been very busy baking many fall treats that I am eager to share with you. Here is one of my most recent favorites, pumpkin chocolate chip bars! It's a Martha Stewart recipe that I've been making for a few years now. Deeeelish.

Aren't these fun cookie cutters? I have a great selection, thanks to some my mom bought for me this year and some I bought last year. Love these kinds of festive kitchen items!!

Ingredients:

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 Tbsp. pumpkin-pie spice (for this, I added my own mix of approx. 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. cloves; and yes, I realize this doesn't add up to 1 Tbsp.!)

-1 tsp. baking soda

-3/4 tsp. salt

-1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

-1 and 1/4 cups sugar

-1 large egg

-2 tsp. vanilla 

-1 cup canned pumpkin puree

-1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips (I only added about 1.5 cups, 12 oz. is a LOT of chocolate chips!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 pan with tin foil (leaving an overhang of foil on all sides) and grease the foil (the original recipe doesn't actually say to grease it, but I did with cooking spray). In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt; set aside. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth, and then mix in the egg and vanilla until everything is combined. Beat in the pumpkin puree (the mixture may appear curdled - don't worry if this is the case!). With the mixer on low, incorporate the dry ingredients. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before lifting the bars out of the pan using the foil. Cut bars into desired size.

I thought it'd be fun to cut a portion of this batch using my cookie cutters! It's always fun to switch it up from the normal squares or rectangles. (By the way, sorry for the not-so-great-quality pictures...I took some of these late at night and had no natural light with which to work!)

These bars are incredibly easy to make, and they are very moist and flavorful. Personally, I think they're better the day after baking them, as the flavors seem to come through better after they've sat for a while. I also would venture to guess that they'd be quite yummy with other types of baking chips too...perhaps butterscotch or cinnamon?! :)

Go ahead and give them a try! Feed them to your family or bring them to your coworkers. Everyone will love them. I promise. ;-)