Cranberry Swirl Pumpkin Bars

The pumpkin saga continues with Cranberry Swirl Pumpkin Bars.  You know the story by now, and you can probably guess that I had cranberry sauce hanging around from Christmas, too.  The funny part of this story?  Well, given that I almost ran out of granulated sugar on the last recipe, would you believe that I had no powdered sugar for the frosting on this recipe?  So, I had to get a little creative and go in a direction that I was not entirely comfortable with.  A cooked frosting.  Using flour.  Why have I never made this, you  might ask.  Well, to be honest, it grosses me out just a little.  However, I needed to frost these puppies (once you bake them, you'll see why) and I was not about to wake up my hungry puppy and pile in the car to drive 6 blocks to the store to get ONE thing.  No thank you.  Bring on the flour.  It actually worked.  Quite well.  The frosting turned out very fluffy and not grainy (which I was worried about).  It does NOT taste like flour (big sigh of relief here).  Verdict?  I added the recipe to my file.  Original recipe found here.


Cranberry Swirl Pumpkin Bars


Bars:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/3 cups brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or home made
2/3 cup whole berry cranberry sauce, warmed (to help is swirl more easily)


Cooked Frosting:
2 Tablespoons flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon orange extract


Preheat the oven to 350F.  Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and melted butter until well combined.  Beat in the egg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and vanilla extract.  Stir in the pumpkin puree.  Add the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.


Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Drop spoonfuls of the cranberry sauce on top of the batter, and swirl gently with a butter knife.  Bake the bars for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.


To make the cooked frosting, in a small saucepan, combine the flour with a little bit of the milk (about 2 tablespoons) and stir to make a smooth paste.  Add the remaining milk and stir until smooth.  Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens.  Cool to room temperature. With an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.  Add the cooled milk mixture, then continue to beat until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and orange extracts and beat well.  Spread the frosting over the cooled bars.  Makes about 16 servings.


Enjoy!  -Cardamommy