Alright guys, I really did the best that I could but I just could not put off baking with pumpkin any longer. As you may know, fall is my absolute favorite season and this year I have been worse than ever, just pining for fall since the second week in June – I’m not kidding. I remember seeing variations on pumpkin blondies all over food blogs last fall and somehow I never got around to making them. Naturally, I’ve been thinking about them all summer – hence my making them in mid-August on a 90 degree day. A warm one of these with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream…I can at least pretend it’s fall, right?
I suppose these bars are not a traditional blondie because they are not made with brown sugar, but you could easily make that substitution if you so desire and I think they would be great that way. They still have a great warm flavor, reminiscent of caramel, so I think they fit best in the blondie category regardless. The texture is slightly more fluffy than you may expect from a bar cookie, but I attribute that to the pumpkin as nearly all baked goods I have made with pumpkin turn out deliciously soft and puffy. Now, I used only white chocolate chips this time around but let me just say that I absolutely insist that you mix in some butterscotch chips when you try this recipe! I honestly don’t know how I could have overlooked such an obvious and awesome mix-in, but I thought of it about 3 minutes before they came out of the oven. Doh! If you are the nutty dessert type, I bet some toasted pecans or walnuts would be good too.