Gluten Free Harvest Pumpkin Bars Food

GLUTEN-FREE HARVEST PUMPKIN SPICE BARS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease bottom and sides of 15x10x1-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray.
• In large bowl, beat all bar ingredients except raisins with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in raisins. Spread in pan.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack, about 2 hours.
• Spread frosting over bars. Sprinkle with walnuts. For bars, cut into 7 rows by 7 rows. Store in refrigerator.

GLUTEN FREE HARVEST PUMPKIN BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a large baking sheet.
• Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin purée. It's normal for batter to look a little curdled at this stage. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and beat on low speed until combined. Stir in raisins.
• Spread batter in prepared baking sheet, be careful to fill in corners. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
• Cream-cheese frosting
• In a large bowl, beat all ingredients until well combined. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.
• Cut as desired.
• Makes 18 large or 24 medium bars.

HARVEST PUMPKIN-SPICE BARS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F
• Lightly grease bottom and sides of 15x10x1 inch pan (glass is best) with shortening.
• In large bowl, beat eggs, granulated sugar, oil and pumpkin until smooth.
• Stir in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves.
• Stir in chocolate chips, spread in pan.
• Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until light brown.
• Cool completely in pan on cooling rack, about 2 hours.
• In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth.
• Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable.
• Spread frosting over bars.
• Sprinkle with walnuts.
• For bars, cut into 7 rows by 7 rows.
• Store in refrigerator.
• Tastes better the day after!

PUMPKIN-OAT BARS (GLUTEN FREE)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x11, or two 9 inch round, baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
• Make oat flour: Place oatmeal in blender or food processor and blend for 1-2 minutes until oatmeal resembles coarse flour. You may need to stop blender and stir oats a couple of times to ensure that all oats have been blended. NOTE: oats are measured before you processes them.
• In a large bowl mix oats, brown sugar, salt, spices, baking powder, and baking soda. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the pumpkin, apple sauce, oil, and vanilla. Combine until mixed well. NOTE: the batter should be looser than cookie dough but thicker than cake batter. If your batter is too thick add a little water 1/4 cup at a time until it looks right.
• Gently fold in chocolate chips, raisins, and/or nuts.
• Pour batter into prepared pans and gently smooth top. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Timing will depend on what size pan you use, but definitely check around 30 minutes.
• Once out of the oven drizzle the top with maple syrup (optional). It soaks in so they wont be super sticky.
• NOTES:.
• You can use "old fashioned" or "quick" rolled oats. Use Gluten-free oats only if you want to avoid gluten.
• Try white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, or even butterscotch chips.
• On occasion I've substituted part of the oats with granola cereal (processed into flour) with good results.
• Next I want to experiment with using pureed butternut or zucchini squash in place of the pumpkin because pumpkin is more difficult to find outside the holidays.