A Near Kitchen Disaster = Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze

It all started when I read a post on the BGE forum about roasting pumpkins.  Then I read about Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze over on the Boulder Locavore site and decided I needed to make them.  So I got a couple pie pumpkins, cut them in half, sprinkled cinnamon on the cut sides, put them cut side down in a roasting pan, and slid them into a 450 degree oven.  And promptly forgot all about them.  Some two and a half hours later, I remembered and found this waiting for me:

Aaaack!  What a mess.  Don't cha just hate it when that happens?  I couldn't even get a spatula under it to scrape it into the garbage.  So I sat the pan on the counter to cool off and went on my merry way.

Some time later, passing through the  kitchen, I decided to just take a taste of the insides to see what they tasted like.  Lo and behold, I had some seriously sweet pumpkin goop going on!  This wasn't going in the garbage can after all!  Don't cha just love it when that happens? 

So I proceeded to take the skin off--it just lifts right up--fun!--and scraped whatever wasn't completely charred into the Cuisinart to puree it into creamy pumpkiny goodness.

Into the fridge it went until it was time to make my pumpkin bars.  

In the meantime, I had found the same recipe on several other sites.  They all appeared to be pretty much the same and all had one serious flaw:  The recipe didn't make nearly enough!  One small 9x9 pan of pumpkin bars with orange glaze just wasn't going to cut it.  So I doubled the recipe.  I also added salt.  My mom always says that if you don't put in salt, your cookies, cakes, or pumpkin bars will taste 'flat.'  I don't know what the heck that means, but I sure wasn't about to have my pumpkin bars taste 'flat,' so I added salt.  Cautiously. A very small amount.  I also doubled the amount of pumpkin.  I'd like to say I did this because I'm a culinary genius and I knew that adding extra pumpkin would make my recipe superior.  But I cannot tell a lie.  The truth is that I made a mistake.  Aaaack!   Dont cha just hate it when that happens?  But you know what?!  The pumpkin bars turned out great.  And, in fact, I didn't even realize I had doubled the pumpkin until I was typing this up.  And did I mention the pumpkin bars turned out great?  Serendipitily great.  Dont cha just love it when that happens?

Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups (or less) roasted-just-right pumpkin puree

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon mace

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins

1 cup pecans

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter; then add in the brown sugar and beat well.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each.  Add in the pumpkin, mixing well.

Measure out your flour, spices, baking soda, and salt and stir together.  Slowly add the dry stuff into the pumpkin mixture, beating until well combined.  Stir in the raisins and pecans.

Grease a very large Pyrex type casserole dish.  Mine is about 16 x 9 or 10 I think.  It's really big.  It's the biggest I've seen.  Scoop the batter into the pan and smooth it out to get it as even as possible.  

Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Just before the bars are due to come out of the oven, prepare the Orange Glaze by whisking together:

2 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons orange juice

When the bars are done, drizzle the glaze over them immediately while they're still warm.  It helps to use a silicon pastry brush to distribute the glaze evenly.  A lot of it runs to the edges of the pan, but I just swept it back toward the center until it all looked even.

Allow the bars to cool.  Very important to let them cool completely because like brownies, they're hard to cut if you decide you can't wait.  Using the edge of a spatula gets a cleaner cut than using a knife.  This is especially true if you can't wait til they're cooled off.  (This trick works with brownies too.)  This recipe made 36 very decent-sized bars.  If  you cut them smaller, you'll get quite a few more.

These are super yummy and are perfect for fall and holiday baking.  Everyone I shared these with loved them.  They stayed moist for several days, even when cut.