Ten Posts of Pumpkin: (3) Ginger Pumpkin White Chocolate Blondies

WARNING! Another Re-Post!!! But oh-so-worthy of reposting. Believe me. This recipe shall redeem me from my pumpkin seed debacle. Forever. Not only is this recipe worthy of a FOOD BLOG, as opposed to what I often call "my Sadie blog" - but also, I'm super busy for the next few days. Mostly in the kitchen, though, which is good, right? So there will be two re-posts. Anyway, I apologize for any resulting formatting issues. Too busy to fix them. Just focus on the recipe, dudes.
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11/27/2009

A while back, my friend Nicole solicited pumpkin recipes on her blog. She needed pumpkin recipes because she had pumpkins-a-plenty growing in her yard. Later, I needed pumpkin recipes because I had pumpkins-a-plenty growing in my yard. Just kidding. I don't have a yard. I did have a lot of pumpkins though; they were from - where else? - our CSA. So MC and I have been quite resourceful in our use of pumpkins in our little kitchen, and now I have a response for Nicole, four months later. (I think these recipes are worth the wait.)

The first recipe, featured below, is only barely adapted from this Ginger Pumpkin White Chocolate Blondies recipe. It was a fun one because we got to use two new kitchen gadgets: the VitaMix, to puree the pumpkin, and a kitchen scale, to, well, weigh things, like butter, which we wouldn't want to skimp on. (In case you were wondering, Sadie is just two pounds too big for the kitchen scale.)



I wasn't sure about the crystallized ginger in this recipe. Generally, crystallized ginger is only good in theory, you know? I find it to be prettier than it is tasty.



So I only put it into half the batter - the half that I made into cute mini-muffin-blondies - and they were good, but the half that I made into blondie bars (no picture - but they looked like the one pictured here) had the crystallized ginger in them (double the amount in fact, because I put all the ginger from the whole recipe into this half), and they were even better. And I wasn't sure if something with that much white chocolate could get better.



But it could.



NOTES: You could of course use canned pumpkin too. It might be better, actually, or at least more pumpkiny and denser. And, sadly, I don't recommend making the mini-muffin-blondies. The consistency of these is a perfect combination of crumbly and gooey. But this perfect consistency made them hard to get out of the muffin tin intact. So although they were cute, chunks of blondie or - horror! - white chocolate would stick in the pan, like so:



So stick with a 13X9" pan or two 8X8" pans. (Or maybe just regular cookies even.) Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Blondies with Crystallized Ginger
Adapted from here

Yield: One 13X9" pan or two 8X8" pans' worth; about 24-30 ample servings

1 c all-purpose flour
1 c stoneground whole wheat flour (adds good texture)
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1 c pumpkin, pureed
1 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 T vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t ground ginger
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t ground cloves
1 1/2 c good quality white chocolate, chopped
1/4 - 1/2 c crystallized ginger, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or "Betty Crocker temp", as sexy Michael Chiarello would say. Butter or spray pan(s). (If you are not lazy, you could also line pan(s) with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spray them, which makes for easiest blondie removal.)

2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

3. In separate bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the pumpkin puree. (It might look kind of curdled, but it still turned out fine.) Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

4. Gently stir in flour mixture until just incorporated.

5. Stir in white chocolate and crystallized ginger chunks.

6. Spread into pan(s) and bake for 30-35 minutes (if in two pans) or 40-45 minutes (if one big pan).

7. Cool, cut, and enjoy the tasty bad boys.

Happy fall!