PUMPKIN BARS
This is the season for pumpkin harvesting. Amish cooks use pumpkin pulp in a variety of ways: breads, rolls, pancakes, and brownies and bars. This is a really tasty pumpkin bar recipe that Rachel made last night and I’m enjoying still today. Most Amish cooks would use homegrown pumpkin, which is a bit lighter in color than the rich-brown/orange store-bought variety, but either can be used. This is a picture of our pumpkin bar dessert from last night. 
The recipe is below. Yum!
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix together ingredients until smooth consistency. Pour into greased 9 X 13 baking dish. Then bake at 350 for 22 – 28 minutes.
Frosting: Beat together 3/4 stick of oleo, 8 ounces of cream cheese and 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat until right consistency to spread. Add a little milk, if needed.
Note: the original recipe called for 3 ounces of cream cheese and 1 3/ 4 cup of powdered sugar, but this household likes a thicker frosting:) My vote is to go with the thicker frosting formulation because the cake/bar part is not very sweet at all.
These look so good!!! they almost look like something lemon.. if you ever have a recipe for a lemony something that would be cool.
Looks really good!! I will have to make some soon..we have been “all things pumpkin” lately! The Punkin Patch has been pretty busy..tho’ today was slow even with a nice day. I once read somewhere that the reason store pumpkin is darker is because it is often mixed with squash. That makes sense to me..squash is darker and can be used just as you would pumpkin.
Just a note on store-bought canned pumpkin. It’s really something called Dickinson field squash. It looks like a large winter squash, and was designated a type of pumpkin (probably for the purposes of selling it as pumpkin). I found this out a couple of years ago when I wondered why my home-cooked pumpkin and store-bought canned pumpkin never looked alike.