Best Recipes: Pumpkin Pie Bars

Pumpkin Pie Bars with a Pecan Crust - Photo: Flickr

A great treat to make for Halloween parties and Thanksgiving get-togethers are Pumpkin Pie Bars. These scrumptious cookie bars taste like mini pumpkin pies, and best of all, they’re portable. A yummy way to celebrate the arrival of the fall season.

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

1 14 oz. can (1 ¼ cups) sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground allspice

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 1 cup of the crumb mixture.

Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom and halfway up sides of ungreased 2-quart rectangular baking dish.

In another large bowl, stir together pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, cinnamon, salt, and allspice. Pour into crust-lined baking dish.

Stir pecans into reserved crumb mixture. Sprinkle pecan mixture over pumpkin mixture.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack. Chill in refrigerator for up to 2 hours. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Author: Donna Monday

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Enjoy Fall's Bounty With Comfort Foods

Butternut Squash Soup - Photo: Flickr

Autumn, with its vibrant leaves, crisp, clean air, and bountiful harvest, invokes a sense of comfort and family togetherness that no other season can match.

With harvest festivals aplenty, this is the time of year to enjoy the bounty of your garden or the harvest of farmers in your area. Choosing local harvest foods, such as pumpkins, apples and squash, is a great way to support your community and the environment, too.

"Squash is a traditional staple food, rich in beta-carotene, fiber and a satiating sweetness," said Autumn Brennan, Organic Valley Family of Farms' food aficionado. "It's a versatile veggie with a well-rooted history and diversity in flavors. From the caramelesque aroma of delicate squash roasting in the oven to spicy pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day, squash surrounds you with a sweet and subtle warmth that soothes the nerves and delights the senses."

To enhance the flavor of your squash recipes, Brennan recommends using high-quality organic butter, produced without synthetic chemicals, hormones or antibiotics.

HARVEST MOON SQUASH SOUP

(Makes 4 servings)

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup shallots, minced
• 1 cup carrots, grated
• 3 cups Organic Valley butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon Organic Valley Salted Butter
• 1/2 bay leaf (remove prior to serving)
• 1 large Granny Smith or tart baking apple, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• Water (as needed for thinning soup)
• 2 cups organic low-salt chicken broth
• 1/4 cup Organic Valley Sour Cream 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, saute onion, shallots, carrots, and bay leaf in butter until softened.

Add the squash and apple, chicken broth and 1/2 cup of water.

Add curry, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 45 minutes or until squash is tender.

In a blender, puree the soup in batches, transferring pureed soup to a clean saucepan. Add enough additional water to thin soup to desired consistency.

Top each bowlful with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy with hearty whole-grain bread.

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Pumpkin – A Super Food!

Pumpkins - Photo: Pixabay

Think of the word pumpkin and images of jack-o-lanterns and whipped cream covered Thanksgiving pies will probably pop into your mind. Pumpkin is traditionally considered a holiday food and is a staple in our kitchen pantries and freezers during that festive time of the year. However, did you know that pumpkin now heralded as one of the ‘Super Foods?’ 

According to Dr. Steven Pratt, author of SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life, “Well, pumpkin is one of the most nutritionally valuable foods known to man. Moreover, it’s inexpensive, available year-round in a canned form, incredibly easy to incorporate into recipes, high in fiber, low in calories, and packs an abundance of disease-fighting nutrients.”

What exactly makes pumpkin so super? The powerful antioxidants known as carotenoids give this food its super status. Carotenoids have the ability to ward off the risk of various types of cancer and heart disease, along with, cataracts and macular degeneration. Dr. Pratt mentions many other disease-fighting superfoods in his book as well, but we are most interested in pumpkin because of the year-round availability and ease of use in a canned form. 

How can we add this wonder food to our diets throughout the year? Take advantage of the benefits and great taste of pumpkin with the following delicious Pumpkin Recipes.

Any day Pumpkin Pancakes 

2-1/2 cups flour

1 cup of buttermilk

1 tsp. salt

2-1/4 tsp. soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup of pumpkin

Measure flour in a bowl and add dry ingredients. Stir in buttermilk and add pumpkin. Mix Well. Cook on hot griddle or skillet until golden brown. 

Pumpkin Spiced Muffins

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin 

1/4 cup milk

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl cream butter with brown sugar. Beat in eggs, then

pumpkin and milk. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, spices, salt and baking soda. Add to the creamed mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

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