Gooey Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares Recipe

A lot of holidays are prime time for familial drama. In my extended family, holidays and special occasions have caused significant tension in the past: forgotten birthdays, refusal to travel for Thanksgiving dinners, heated debates over what time we'd sit down to eat on Christmas Day. Yet, if you ask most people what their favorite holiday is, the majority will choose Christmas or Hanukkah.

While I'm hardly a scrooge, I think that Christmas is anti-climatic. There's an entire season, one that grows longer every year,  devoted to the winter holidays. There's caroling, cookies and presents. We have company office parties where someone inevitably has one too many gin and tonics and needs to take a cab home. Yet, December 25 hits and in some families, presents are flung open, gingerbread houses constructed and as soon as it began it's over with only three dreary months of winter to look forward to.

That's why if you ask me what my favorite holiday is, I probably won't say Christmas or Hanukkah, but rather Halloween or Thanksgiving. My favorite months of the year are October and November when the leaves change colors on trees and pumpkin decorating is encouraged, if not mandatory.

You can do all kinds of delicious things with pumpkin but today we're talking about dessert. Pumpkin is famous for it's starring role in pie, but it also adds moisture and a fabulously chewy texture to baked goods.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

4. Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut. These will be thick and gooey, so let cool before cutting.

I sliced them into about forty pieces rather than the intended 24, since I bite-sized baked goods (plus, when you eat four, you can justify it with, "well I probably really only had ONE."

Comments

[Sarah]

Oh yum! I have been dying to make something pumpkin. These will be hard to resist making.

[Cate O'Malley]

Mmm, the men in the family all love the original version. This pumpkin one sounds delicious.

[Maris]

Sarah - They will be hard to resist eating, too!

Cate - Is the original version basically a chocolate chip blondie? Those are great too!

[Amy]

those sound fantastic! I am definitely bookmarking these!

[AshleyD]

Those look really good! I'll have to try making them sometime.

[clumbsycookie]

I think those might be worth the sweat pants! Lol!

[Jessica]

Wow those look amazing. I think you should come to Chicago and cook for me. I'll come over and bring the beverages :)

[Melissa]

You have to stop posting such great pictures because my mouth waters every time. It's not even funny!!

They look delicious, I'll make them this weekend :-)

[Maris]

Jessica - I'll be there!

Melissa - Let me know what you think of the recipe! Can't wait to hear

[Gudrun of Kitchen Gadget Girl]

wow, you and I are totally on the same wavelength. I might make these for next week's Cookie Thursday, as my husband adores pumpkin!

Cheers,

[Aggie]

Oh boy...these look good. I'm already in need of wearing sweats, it's not going to get better after seeing these delicious looking treats!!

[noble pig]

I feel this is calling me too...oh yum...now I'm in trouble!

[What Liz Said]

Thanks for the link!

And fyi they came out fabulously and I'll be making them for our Thanksgiving dinner as well. :(

[What Liz Said]

That was supposed to be a smiley, haha.

[little miss mel]

Made these yesterday. They were SOOOO good.

I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice, so I used ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, (had no cloves) and it worked out great!!

Thank you for a great recipe! Have passed it on many times already!