Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars

Moist, chunky pumpkin bars chock full of milk chocolate chips and chopped walnuts…who can resist that? This recipe is adapted from a cookie recipe I found over at FoodNetwork.com. I made the cookies and they tasted great, but they just didn’t have much visual appeal. So I thought I’d make them into bars instead, and I like them much better this way! I also added chopped walnuts and eliminated the cloves that the original recipe calls for. I recommend using Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips in this recipe because they’re a bigger size than other brands and they’re so smooth and creamy. Now if you don’t like milk chocolate, you can substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips instead, but it is really good with those Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips and worth paying a little extra for them!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13″ baking pan or line with parchment paper (I haven’t used parchment paper much in the past, but I tried it with this recipe, and it worked really well! If you use it, let the parchment paper cover the bottom of the pan and go up the sides. It works so well, and there’s hardly any cleanup! I’m a new parchment paper fan!).

In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the egg/butter mixture in thirds. Stir in the chocolate chips and then the walnuts. Spoon the dough into the 9 x 13″ pan, spreading evenly in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Makes  about 20-24 bars, depending on how small or large you cut them. Enjoy, and try not to eat too many!

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Filed under: Autumn, Cookies/Bars/Brownies, Food and Recipes, Seasonal Tagged: baking, Brown Sugar, Butter, Chocolate chip, cookie bars, Flour, pumpkin, recipe