With my ranting on Halloween complete, in comes the recipe! Now that it's November, that means the Thanksgiving stretch is in full swing, and I thought this recipe reflected that well, so here you go: Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Bars. Note that if pecans or nuts in general are not your thing, this recipe is still great without them.
These bars are really good! I've been on a cookie roll recently, and thought it was time for a change, plus a little pumpkin, and man did I pick a great choice! One bite tastes like exactly like autumn, if that's even possible, but just believe me it does.
I also have to tell this funny story (or at least it's funny to me). I was making this recipe, and I finished all the directions, so I was like great, now just pour it into the pan! Luckily, my baker instincts went off and said, wait a second, this doesn't look right. Turns out the original recipe I got this from had you measure out the flour and spices into a separate bowl in the beginning, but forgot to ever say to add them into the mix at the end. I noticed this pretty quickly, so I just put the flour in and it tasted perfect, but in my head I was sincerely shaming the recipe. Thank god I noticed or else these would have been some not so yummy bars...
So enjoy the recipe, and make sure to add the flour!
Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Bars
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1½ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- ¼ tsp. allspice
- ¼ tsp. ginger
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed tightly
- 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper, leaving enough room to lift paper out of the pan after baking.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and egg yolk until combined. Add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix until completely combined. Slowly add the flour mixture until evenly mixed throughout. Scrape the sides of the bowl when necessary. Stir in chocolate chips and copped pecans, reserving a small amount of each to sprinkle on top before baking.
Spoon batter onto parchment paper-lined pan and then spread evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the sides of the bars are browned a but and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool*, remove from the pan, and cut into bars.
*You may choose to serve or eat these the day you made them, but I found that they really only firm up enough to eat them like a true bar the day after I made them. Nevertheless, they were delicious either way, just a bit messy for the first couple hours after coming out of the oven.