Pumpkin Bars

This is another of J-lo's recipes we'll be having this year for Thanksgiving. Because of the sheer volume of desserts, we're doing just a half of the recipe.

Pumpkin Bars
about 12 bars

1 stick of butter + 2 TB
Yellow Cake mix
4 eggs
Large can of pure pumpkin
1 1/4 cup sugar
Small can of evaporated milk
Nutmeg
Ginger
Cinnamon

Melt 1 stick butter and mix with cake mix and 1 egg. Cover bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with most of this mixture, reserving enough to 'dot' the top later. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 3 eggs, milk, 3/4 cup sugar. Add spices to taste, twice as much cinnamon (approx: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp each ginger + nutmeg). Pour into the pan.

Melt remaining butter (2 TB) and mix with reserved cake batter, adding 1/2 cup of sugar. Crumble over the top of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

J-LO: I spent a summer working in an ice cream & dessert shop near Dupont Circle, and this was our signature recipe. It was passed to one of the owners by her grandmother. This is rich and deadly! The best way to serve it is warm with a scoop of ice cream – preferably a sweet spicy flavor like cinnamon or chai (although good vanilla works, too). And note that the baking time is an approximation. You really must test it with a toothpick in a couple places. If it’s underdone you’ll have what I call “smashed pumpkin”. But if it’s overdone you’ll have a cake-like texture that’s not as appealing. The finished product should be soft and moist and mostly firm.