Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

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It’s about time for a recipe–the Fall season puts me in a baking mood.

So many of my favorite recipes have stories that go with them, as I’m sure yours do too. Family and friends connecting through food is really universal.

I don’t think there has been a year that we haven’t had pumpkin bars several times during the holidays. If you ask my kids what their favorite food is in the Fall, these are at the top of their list.

In fact, when the kids attended a small Christian school they had a Thanksgiving feast each year, and I volunteered to make these as the dessert for the whole school.

Mom tip: Volunteer in a BIG way and it can sometimes carry you through the whole year or at least a semester.

I did this for 4 or 5 years and the girls loved to help me make them the week before the feast. Assembly line style, we made between 10 and 20 jellyroll pans of pumpkin bars and froze them. The day before the feast, we mixed up and slathered the bars with the most delicious frosting.

Roger LeroyYes, that is a hand mixer you see Roger Leroy using.

Yes, it is true that I got through 19 years of marriage and 4 children and did not own a KitchenAid mixer until Christmas two years ago when PhilBillPaul found that the hand mixer was too strenuous for him. So he bought me a KitchenAid. Go figure.

In his defense, I was really fine without one.

Mr. Handy PhilBillPaul even made a special tray for me to slide the disposable foil pans onto and carry into the school three pans at a time. Sometimes he scares me with his handy creations.

One year my former next door neighbor offered to help. She made half the bars and I made the other half. Then we loaded up our vehicles and delivered them to the school.

Pic 2 for Pumpkin barsHer two youngest children were obviously assigned the important job of guarding the pumpkin bars until we were ready to head to the school.

These pumpkin bars began with one neighbor bringing one pumpkin bar over on a little dessert plate to share with me. A small gesture that she may not even remember but I loved the pumpkin bar so much that I asked her for the recipe. She sent it over handwritten on a recipe card. Here it is:

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Pumpkin Bars
Sue Domian

4 eggs, 1 cup oil, 2 cups sugar, 1 can pumpkin. Mix together.
Add: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp ginger, 2 tsp cinnamon.

Mix together well. Bake in a greased / floured jellyroll pan at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frost when cool:
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, 3/4 stick margarine or butter, 1 tbsp milk,
1 tsp vanilla, 1 box powdered confection sugar

Keep bars refrigerated.

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I have lost count of how many people I have shared the recipe with. In the final year at their school, I printed the recipe on card stock so the school would have a stack to pass out when moms asked for it. They are that good!

Do you have a favorite recipe that has become a tradition in your family? Let’s swap some recipes in the comments so we can all add a new recipe or two to our menu this year.

Sherra Humphreys
Reprinted with permission from SherraLifeLessons

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Thank you to today's guest blogger for sharing with us all!

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