Jillian’s Pumpkin Bars

My daughter, Lindsey, turned 24 last week (which I find amazing enough) but she didn’t want a birthday cake because – get this – she doesn’t like sweets very much. I’m not sure how she’s my daughter, really.

She did, however, say that maybe I could make something pumpkin, since she does like pumpkin. After thinking about it she asked for “those pumpkin bars you made recently.”

She’s talking about the pumpkin bars that a reader named Jillian left the recipe for in the comments of my banana pudding post. Jillian called them Killer Pumpkin Bars and the first time I made them (for a tailgate) I knew that she hadn’t exaggerated. They are killer, meaning delicious.

Since then I’ve made them for another tailgate, a family get-together, and Lindsey’s birthday, and they’ve gotten rave reviews each time, so I wanted to share Jillian’s recipe in a post.

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
2 cups canned pumpkin (one 15-ounce can)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 15″ x 10 1/2″ x 1″ sheet pan*. Sift flour, baking soda, spices, and salt together; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched, or a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Icing:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), softened**
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Combine and beat together until smooth.

* If desired, the recipe can be halved using a 9″ x 13″ x 1″ sheet pan. The baking time will be about the same; start checking at 20 minutes.

**Jillian’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter but I found I liked it better with less. It might be because I doubled the icing recipe because I divided the pumpkin mixture between 2 pans and seemed to need a little more icing to cover all the bars.

Thank you for sharing, Jillian. This recipe is a keeper. Lindsey thanks you too.