Pumpkin Chip Bars

It is the time of year when I want to make things with pumpkin.  I recently tried a new pumpkin bar recipe, and it is a keeper.  I was looking through some of my cookie cookbooks (I won’t confess how many of those I have) and found this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Cookies for Christmas, 1985.

The recipe has many of the things I like:  It is a bar cookie, uses vegetable oil (but not a lot) and fills a 15x10 inch pan which means it makes a big batch.

The recipe originally called for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I didn’t have any on hand.  I did have Nestles’ White Chocolate Chips so I used them.  For whatever reason, most of the chips melted as the bars were baking.  That was OK because left behind were little holes of sweetness.  I am anxious to try other flavors of chips in these.  The cinnamon/sugar topping adds a nice finishing touch to the cookies.

In the future, I will probably add nuts to these.  These are great without them, however, so would be good for people who don’t like or cannot eat nuts.

I think that these would make a great dessert, cut into larger squares with some caramel sauce poured over them and topped with ice cream.

Pumpkin Chip Cookies
4 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate or other flavor baking chips
3 T. sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Place eggs in a large mixing bowl.  Beat well.  Add pumpkin, oil, and sugar.  Mix thoroughly.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix until just moistened.  Stir in chips.  Spread in an ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan.  Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees 25 to 30 minutes or till done.  Cool.  Cut into bars.  The recipe says 36 cookies, but I easily got 48.

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