Pumpkin Bar Series Part I

I had a few cans of pumpkin lying around and decided they needed to be put to good use.  Oh who am I kidding? I panicked because last year there was a pumpkin shortage so I bought every can I could get my hands on.  It was like Y2K all over again...Anywho, I've been craving pumpkin pie but I didn't want to make a full blown pie and burn myself out on it before the actual holiday, because if you're like me, you could sit down and eat a whole pie.  By. Yourself.  Never a good thing.  So I thought I would look up some recipes for pumpkin bars.  I came across so many of them that I decided to do a series of 3 recipes and see which one I like the best.  All three recipes will be very different, so you'll have to check back and try each one.  Part I is more of a Pumpkin "Pie" Bar.  Not cakey at all and the closest I could get to the actual pie.  Let me know what you think!

Pour one cup of yellow cake mix into a medium size mixing bowl; set aside.  Combine remaining cake mix, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg; mix well. Press into the baking pan.

Combine pumpkin, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup sugar, spices, and milk in a medium size mixing bowl; mix until smooth. Pour evenly over the crust in the 9x13 inch pan.

Pour the sugar and cinnamon into the mixing bowl containing the 1 cup of yellow cake mix. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly.
Sprinkle this mixture over the pumpkin filling.   Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the bars come out clean. Let cool before cutting.

Pumpkin Pie Bars
makes 24 bars
Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
Crust and Filling:

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup melted butter

3 eggs

2 (15 oz) cans pumpkin

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Topping:

1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1 cup reserved cake mix

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.

2.  Pour one cup of yellow cake mix into a medium size mixing bowl; set aside.
3.  Combine remaining cake mix, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg; mix well. Press into the baking pan.
4.  Combine pumpkin, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup sugar, spices, and milk in a medium size mixing bowl; mix until smooth. Pour evenly over the crust in the 9x13 inch pan.
5.  Pour the sugar and cinnamon into the mixing bowl containing the 1 cup of yellow cake mix. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over the pumpkin filling.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the bars come out clean. Let cool before cutting.


**If you don't have all the spices for the batter, you can substitute 1-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
**Refrigerate after cooling


Adapted from AllRecipes