Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’ll soon be on my way up north to visit my family and enjoy a delicious feast. All week I was planning on making Evan’s pumpkin quinoa stuffing, but our fridge is only getting down to 46 degrees, which is way too warm for a dish like that to stay safe (anything above 41 degrees can grow bacteria)! Instead of the stuffing I made some wonderful pumpkin bars, which were able to stay in our freezer until today.
Melt-In-Your-Mouth, Diabetes-Friendly Pumpkin Bars
(Source: Diabetic Living, Issue September 21 2010)
(Found on dietitian Anthony’s blog)
**The original recipe is in black. My crazy modifications are indicated in red, when applicable **
Ingredients
– 1/2 cup vegetable oil spread, softened (I used 1/2 cup organic unsweetened applesauce, which probably isn’t the best substitute for margarine….)
– 1/2 cup packed brown sugar ( I used Splenda brown sugar, although the recipe strongly advised against this! I probably should have listened…)
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice (I added a bit extra)
– 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
– 1/4 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed or 1 egg (I used 1 egg)
– 1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole grain brown rice flour, but would probably only use half whole grain flour if I made these again)
– 1/2 of an 8 oz package reduced-fat cream cheese (I used fat-free)
– 1 cup frozen light whipped dessert topping, thawed
– ( I added sliced almonds on top of my bars)
Directions
– Preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour a 9x9x2 baking pan (I used a quick bread loaf pan, which was about 23 cm by 13 cm, because I didn’t have enough batter to fit into a larger pan, so I thought….). Set aside.
– In a large bowl, combine vegetable oil spread, brown sugar, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well-mixed. Beat in pumpkin and egg. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour.
– Spread dough into prepared pan. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (It took my bars about 17 minutes to cook all the way through because they were THICK!). Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.
– Meanwhile, for frosting: In a bowl, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Beat in half of the dessert topping. Fold in remaining dessert topping. Spread over cooled pumpkin layer. If desired, sprinkle with freshly grated nutmeg. Cut into bars. Store, covered, in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
Don’t they look prettier with the almonds on top?!
YUM!
If you check out the original recipe from Diabetic Living Magazine, you will see that it made about 24 bars. Mine only made 10. Clearly mine were thicker than theirs, oops, maybe next time I will cut them in half so they aren’t as thick. My nutrition stats were also much different, but at least over half of my carbohydrates were from whole grains!
Nutrition Facts
(1 bar, out of the total 10 bars)
Carbohydrates: ~30 grams (2 carbohydrate exchanges)
Whole grains: ~ 18 (one full serving of whole grains!)
Calories: ~150
TASTE: 8 out of 10, Nick loved these, I thought they were tasty, for a healthy dessert.
I would advise against using Splenda brown sugar, I would also suggest using half brown rice flour and half white flour. Perhaps I could have used two pans instead of one, which would make these bars a lot less thick, and half the calories. Either way, it was fun to experiment with all of these modifications and I think my family will still love them! When Nick loves something, it’s a good sign
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! And, don’t forget to make half of your plate packed with fruits and veggies. This was my plate from last year (minus my second helping of turkey and sweet potatoes, my small glass of red wine, and my dessert!).
Be safe, and have a great time with family and friends. I’ll be back next week!
