What Is It: Half Baked Harvest Brown Sugar Maple Pumpkin Butter Bars, Allrecipes Pumpkin Butter Recipe

Price: $

Review:

These pumpkin butter bars were easy to make and tasted delicious!  The ingredients for the bar and glaze are salted butter, dark or light brown sugar (I used light brown), pumpkin butter, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, white chocolate chips, powdered sugar, and espresso.  

I made the pumpkin butter myself.  It was also extremely easy to make. All you do is combine pumpkin puree with apple juice, sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger on a stove, bring the ingredients to a boil, and then simmer the mixture until it is thickened.  It turned out just as delicious as pumpkin butter from the store and was much cheaper.  There was enough to save the leftovers to spread onto bread.

To make the bars, you simply make brown butter in a saucepan, mix the butter with half of the ingredients as specified in the recipe, mix in the other half of the ingredients, and then fold in the white chocolate chips.  Then the batter is done!  It is so quick and easy with minimal steps. While the batter bakes, you can make the glaze.  You simply combine powdered sugar, espresso, vanilla, and salt.  I did not have an espresso machine with me, so I used the Cafe Bustelo Keurig K cup.  I brewed the smallest amount of coffee (4 oz) on strong mode.  Although it wasn’t incredible, it turned out to be impressively similar to espresso and worked for the glaze.  You can drizzle the glaze on top before you cut the cooled bars.  I may have drizzled the glaze on too early because it seeped into the cake instead of hardening on top.  It actually ended up making the bars even more moist, so it was a pleasantly good mistake.

The pumpkin butter bars turned out super moist with a wonderfully smooth, slightly cakey bite. They were the perfect balance between crumbly and dense. They had an amazing pumpkin flavor! The maple and brown sugar flavors came through and brought a perfect warm, fall taste. The white chocolate was light and delicious. It balanced out the rich flavors. The glaze added a wonderful, sweet coffee flavor. If you are a coffee lover or simply like coffee ice cream, you will love the flavor it adds. The glaze complimented all the flavors in the bar wonderfully. These bars are a delicious fall treat that are certain to be a crowd pleaser.