I am a sucker for a good holiday recipe. Expecially when it involves pumpkin!
In preperation for this years holiday cooking and baking festivities, I sifted through a few of my favorite cookbooks. Dorie Greenspan’s book – Dorie’s Cookies – is one of my favorite books (actually all her books rank high on my list) and when I came to this page, I knew I had to make these bars. The original main ingredient for this recipe was sweet potato. But with a little bit of pumpkin puree left over from a cake I recently tested – I opted to use that instead.
If you don’t know Dorie – you should! She’s a huge influence for me in the kitchen and someone who has shown me, through her on line presence and her books, how to be a better cook and baker!
Dorie’s Pumpkin Pie Bars
ingredients
crust:
204grams | 7.5 ounces | 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
60 grams | ounces | 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
128 grams | 4 1/2 ounces |9 Tablespoons unsalted butter (very cold, cut into cubes)
1 large egg yolk
topping:
425 grams | 15 ounces | 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (1 can)
2 large eggs
120 ml | 4 ounces | 1/2 cup heavy cream
100 grams | 3.75 ounces | 1/2 cup packed, light brown sugar
60 ml | 2 ounces | 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt
instructions
• preheat oven to 400*. butter a 9″ square baking pan and line with parchment. lightly butter that too.
crust:
• put the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend.
• scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely and mixture resembles coarse sand.
• stir the yolk and pulse just to break it up. when the yolk is in, process in long pulses — about 10 seconds each — until the dough forms moist clumps and curds. Pinch a piece of the dough; it should hold together nicely.
• turn the dough out into the buttered pan. spread it evenly and, using your fingertips, press the dough down so that you’ve got a compact layer.
• prick the dough all over with a fork, cover with a piece of buttered foil and pour in some dried beans and/or rice for pie weights.
• bake the crust for 15 minutes. carefully remove the foil and weights, return the pan to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the edges of the crust are golden brown.
• place on a rack and let the crust rest while you make the topping. (leave the oven on.)
topping:
• clean out bowl of food processor.
• put all the topping ingredients in your work bowl and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. you want a smooth mixture – this will take a minute or two.
• tap the work bowl against the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. pour mixture over pre-baked crust.
• bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 325* and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes (most likely you’ll need the full 30 minutes), or until the topping is set; a tester inserted into the center should come out clean and the topping shouldn’t jiggle when the pan is tapped.
• transfer the pan to a rack and let cool until the bottom of the pan feels only just the least bit warm or has come to room temperature.
• top the bars with mini marshmallows and torch the crap out of them!
• carefully cut the pie bars into quarters. lift each quarter out of the pan with a broad spatula and cut each quarter into 4 pieces.
Enjoy!
