the final course
I absolutely love pumpkin pie. Ask Linda and she will tell you I can eat an entire pie from Publix in close to one sitting. The half a pie in one sitting? Piece of [pie]! I love pumpkin bread, too. Now that I'm a coffee drinker (and by coffee, I mean a flavored latte with half a shot of espresso - and pretty soon I'm going to start asking for double the syrup), I've been to Starbucks in search of a pumpkin latte - but I guess either no Starbucks does them any more or just not in the UK. When Clark Kent and I ordered the Libby's pumpkin and knew we would have a Thanksgiving, I got busy on allrecipes looking for the perfect pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie recipe. After quite a bit of searching for bread, I decided to make a Pumpkin Tea Loaf. What I liked about this recipe is that it used only half a can of pumpkin (so I could make bread recipe as long as it also called for about a cup) and it used orange zest and orange juice. What I ended up not liking about this recipe is that the middle just would not firm up. I was too afraid I'd underbake or overbake it. I had to saw off the very ends of the loaf, but by yesterday (the day after I made it), it had moistened up quite a bit and was actually quite good. I wish it had a tad more pumpkin flavor, but Clark Kent loves the strong citrus scent. Basically, I'm just glad I have another loaf on which to use cream cheese. The pie took a bit more thought. Immediately I was thinking I'd just go with the standard Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe. The crust, however, was going to prove to be problematic. I was not going to make my own crust - and the recipe calls for a frozen crust anyway. We checked Asda and could not find a suitable ready made crust. The ready made crusts they do have on the market are super shallow and made for tarts. So, I turned to crust less pumpkin pie recipes. I found some interesting and novel recipes on allrecipes, but when I asked CK how much he liked pie crust, I decided that crustless pumpkin pie was not going to happen. Then I turned my attention to pumpkin cheesecake. I pretty soon discovered that the Asda doesn't sell graham crackers and we don't have a spring form pan - not that we couldn't buy one for this recipe, but I like buying pans that I am confident I will use often. Needless to say, the cheesecake was crossed of the list of possibilities. Around 10 pm on Wednesday night I discovered pumpkin cheesecake bars on allrecipes. I immediately put it in my recipe box and kept searching for other possibilities. I very quickly realized that I already had the best recipe and returned to it to study the steps and reviews. The recipe called for it to be made in a 15x10 jelly roll pan - which we KIND of have - and the crust called for a box of cake mix - which I knew I could get at Asda as they do sell a few Betty Crocker goods. I shared it with CK and he suggested we just buy a new pan for the occasion - a regular 13x9 pan. Sooo.....after a few modifications (all modifications that had been tested and written about by reviewers, so I knew I was safe), I used a 13x9 pan to make my pumpkin cheesecake bars and I used a carrot cake mix (instead of pound cake) to make the crust. It turned out absolutely perfect. I second guessed myself about taking them out of the oven and ended up leaving them in maybe 3 minutes too long - but this slight overcooking did nothing to the filling and only toughened the crust a bit around the edges - it was still delicious. The consistency is just slightly more creamy than a pumpkin pie, but it tastes nearly identical to pumpkin pie. The carrot cake crust was SUCH a great and easy idea. And, I love that you can pick it up and eat it like a brownie. May I present Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars:
Oh yeah, here's the bread, too:
