Pumpkin Squares With Browned Butter Frosting

Submitted by Midwest Maven

"I got this recipe from Mrs. Erman, my 3rd grade teacher, about a million years ago:) It's spicy and sweet and yummy, and a great dessert for Thanksgiving!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 25mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• Pumpkin squares

• 2 eggs
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1⁄2 cup raisins
• 1⁄2 cup chopped walnuts

• Browned Butter Frosting

• 1⁄3 cup margarine
• 1 3⁄4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 -2 tablespoon hot water

directions

1. Pumpkin Squares:

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 inch square pan.
3. Beat together eggs, sugars, oil and pumpkin.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Add to egg mixture and stir well.
5. Mix in raisins and nuts, and pour into pan.
6. Bake 55 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. *Should be a cake consistency* Cool and spread with Browned Butter Frosting. Cut into bars and enjoy!
7. ***I updated this recipe after the first comment about it, I had made a typo on the baking time and occasionally it takes even longer to bake than that, just do the toothpick test to gauge the doneness, sorry about the confusion!***.

8. Browned Butter Frosting:

9. Melt margarine over low heat until light brown.
10. In a large bowl, stir together powdered sugar, vanilla and margarine. Gradually add hot water, stirring until frosting is smooth enough to spread.

Reviews

[free-free]

Loved these!!! I adore pumpkin and couldn't wait to make this recipe by one of my team mates during ZWT3. I made a few slight substitutions just to lighten the ingredients up a bit. I used unsweetened applesauce instead of oil and used 1/4 cup of the brown sugar Splenda blend and 1/4 cup of honey...it wasn't quite sweet enough so I then added about a tablespoon of regular Splenda. I used the spices and walnuts as suggested (LOVED BOTH the cinnamon & nutmeg!!!) and used whole wheat flour... I like the nutty flavor that lends with pumpkin. Midwest Maven had mentioned this as being a great Thanksgiving recipe, so with that in mind I reached for dried cranberries instead of raisins (I love that mixed with pumpkin and nuts) and added a very generous 1/2 cup. My "cake" baked in approx. 50 minutes and when it cooled I faked the icing a bit...the recipe sounds great but I am just not a big fan of that type of icing ...so I used MM's idea as a guide and mixed 3/4 cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of melted butter - added vanilla, some more cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (*I like it spicy!!!) and the hot H2O to create a frosting like texture...then I sort of spotted it on the cake surface and sprinkled a dusting of ground nuts over the top before cutting it into bars. They came out so good and were fabulous both freshly out of the oven as well as chilled the next day. This is a recipe I will be pulling out again when the leaves start changing colors in the Fall!! Thanks Midwest Maven!!

 

[jodyyo]

Easy to make but a bit too spicy for me...and I like spicy. I would cut back on the nutmeg. Also, it needed longer to bake than 35 minutes. For me it was more like 45 minutes. Even then it had the consistancy more like pumpkin pie where I was expecting something more along the lines of a cake. Since it was more like pie to me, I would have prefered it with whipped cream rather than the frosting. It was definately good, but next time I will tweek it a bit.