Today I have been on a quest. It's chilly outside and everywhere I go I see pumpkins. Big ones, little ones. It is time for fall food! I love pumpkin and I love sweets, but my waistline sure doesn't. I've been working on ways to modify recipes to get the most out of them as far as taste and nutrition.
I'm a firm believer that there is no substitute for something like chocolate, but there are some things that can be "fudged" on. I want to be able to make desserts that taste delicious! So good, in fact, that you'd never know I've made some alterations behind the scenes.
Today I made pumpkin bars with a cream-cheese frosting. I took an
original recipe from Paula Dean and modified it in a couple of ways. First off, I was only working with half a can of pumpkin (I used the other half in a previous recipe)...and I still turned out an entire 9x13 pan of pumpkin bars. I can't even imagine how thick they would have been without halving the original recipe. Second, I substituted some of the oil with applesauce to reduce the fat content. The applesauce adds moisture, so I didn't substitute cup for cup for the oil or the cake would have turned out soggy. The resulting recipe turned out a deliciously moist, sweet bar, and I felt a lot better eating it.
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Bars:
2 eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce
8 oz pumpkin
1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
Icing:
3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tsp lemon zest
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
