Pumpkin Overtime!

So gray, rainy days = baking spree time for me.  And when said gray, rainy days occur in the fall, you can be assured there will be lots of warm, spicy, fall-like flavors involved.  Like pumpkin.  Lots of pumpkin.  As part of this particular baking spree, I made pumpkin granola bars, pumpkin pancakes (prior post), pumpkin cinnamon rolls (future post), and caramelized apple spice cake (another future post).  The only thing that stopped me from making pumpkin scones was the fact that I ran out of powdered sugar, and you cannot copycat the Starbucks' pumpkin scones without glaze.  Guess that will have to wait for a future spree....

Right now, lets talk about granola bars.  Super yummy.  I love granola bars (chewy, not crunchy).  It's like hand-held oatmeal that you can take with you.  They can come in whatever flavor combination can be imagined.  I have wanted to make my own for some time now, and today I finally decided it was a good time.  I found a recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Chocolate Chip Granola Bars from Sweet Pea's Kitchen, which I decided to further tweak for my own preferences/ingredient availability.  They weren't quite right, but I think that may be due to the additional dry ingredients without addition wet ingredients to hold it together.  I'll tweak that for next time.

Pumpkin Granola Bars modified from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped dates
• 1/2 cup chopped cinnamon roasted almonds

Preheat oven to 350. Spray the bottom and sides of a 8-by-8-inch baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends.

In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, honey, and vanilla extract. Pour mixture over oats and stir well, until combined. Stir in chocolate chips, nuts and dates.

Place the mixture into the prepared pan. Press mixture evenly into pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then cut into squares.

Or I suppose you could just eat it as one giant bar.