Silly title, I know – but chances are, most of you can probably relate to the relationship I have with canned pumpkin. When it’s the end of summer and still sweltering hot outside, I find myself walking down the ‘Baking/Spices’ aisle of the grocery store, just to get a glimpse of the empty spot on the shelf where the Libby’s canned pumpkin would normally be. Just to check and see if they have any yet…we all know it’s not really the calendar that tells us when Fall gets here – it’s the good people of Libby’s who decide when Fall begins. The day I see the cans of pumpkin puree on the shelves of the grocery store is the first day of Fall, as far as I’m concerned. And recently I discovered just how precious my canned pumpkin is to me…as you all know, it’s been near impossible to find it lately. None of my stores had any. What a tragedy. Autumn with no canned pumpkin??! I think not! However, just recently, the pumpkin-shortage nightmare was ended and Libby’s was on the shelves once again. Needless to say, I grabbed as many cans as I could carry! For a week or so now, I’ve been thinking of ways to use my beloved canned pumpkin…pancakes? Cookies? Bread? Possibly, but not just yet. Pumpkin blondies? Yes, please! Blondies filled with pumpkin, spices and full of white chocolate chips…perfect! (*For those of you who aren’t familiar with blondies – they’re just like brownies, but minus the chocolate)
If you’ve got a can or two just sitting around in the back of your pantry, crack one open and re-discover the goodness and joy to be found in baking with canned pumpkin!
Pumpkin Blondies
–Annie’s Eats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (I doubled this)
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white chocolate chips
½ cup chopped, toasted nuts (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree. With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in the white chocolate chips (and nuts, if using) with a rubber spatula.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.
To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.
I’m totally making these! I love pumpkin and blondies are tasty. And white chocolate chips! It’s perfect.
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Comment by Larie — October 13, 2009 @ 6:03 PM
In our area the pumpkin is stocked year round near the puddings.
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Comment by Deanne — October 13, 2009 @ 7:35 PM
Oh Amy! These look YUMMMMMMY! 🙂 I’m trying to gain control of my horrible sweet tooth….your blog isn’t helping! HA! 🙂 Maybe I’ll make these for somebody, eat one and give the rest away. That might be hard though b/c these look SO GOOD!
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Comment by Amy B — October 14, 2009 @ 9:40 AM
Those look like pumpkin PERFECTION! YUM!!!!
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Comment by Katie — October 14, 2009 @ 11:59 AM
Amy, what size can of pumpkin? I can get two sizes – one is 14 or 15 oz, and the other is about 28.
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Comment by Cyndi — October 14, 2009 @ 9:50 PM
I’ve never been brave enough to make anything sweet with pumpkin, but I guess that’s because I didn’t grow up amongst pumpkin pies and halloween etc. I’m not even sure I’d be able to find canned pumpkin in Australia! Maybe it’s worth trying to hunt down because I always hear how awesome sweets made with pumpkin are.
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Comment by Katie — October 15, 2009 @ 9:05 PM
I made these today and the taste was great! But mine came out as cake, and not as deliciously gooey looking blondies like yours. I couldn’t even call them cake-like brownies. It was cake. They look like the blondies on the Annie Eats page! What did you do to make yours fudgy? Could it be because I used white sugar and not brown sugar? I know I didn’t overbeat, my butter was the right temperature, and I followed the directions exactly. Could it be because I used homemade pumpkin puree? I don’t have access to canned pumpkin here. I even took them out 10 minutes early. I’d love to know what you did because the taste was great 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
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Comment by Erin — September 28, 2010 @ 10:27 AM
Erin- Hmm, that’s interesting. It’s definitely a possibility that your homemade pumpkin could be the difference. If your pumpkin puree was thinner than the canned kind, it could very well have caused the cakey texture. Other than that, I’m not sure what else it could be…Sorry about that!
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Comment by amy — September 28, 2010 @ 2:37 PM
Thanks for the answer! I’ll try again when I have canned pumpkin because the taste was great and the texture in the picture looks absolutely perfect. I just took them to a birthday party and everyone loved them!
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Comment by Erin — September 28, 2010 @ 5:07 PM
I’m so glad everyone liked them! Let me know if you do get around to trying them with the canned pumpkin!!
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Comment by amy — September 28, 2010 @ 5:09 PM
I made these today and they didnt turn out like I expected. They turned out more cake like than bar like. They were good I was just wondering what I did wrong.
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amy Reply:
September 23rd, 2012 at 10:01 PM
These are more on the cakey side. Anytime you use pumpkin in a recipe, it will make it more cakey than chewy.
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Comment by Chelsea — September 23, 2012 @ 9:28 PM