Batter-Splattered: Weekend Cookbook Challenge -- Quick and Easy Pumpkin Pie Bars

Michelle at Je Mange la Ville is hosting the October installment of a monthly event called Weekend Cookbook Challenge and this month's theme is, appropriately enough, Halloween. Anything goes -- pumpkins, root vegetables, snacks for a Halloween party, etc. She's not picky.

It just so happens that pumpkin is one of my very favorite foods in the whole wide world so I plopped down on the floor next to my shelf of cookbooks and cracked each of them open one by one in search of a recipe I hadn't tried before. I was feeling adventurous and wanted something new.

I found just the thing in a cookbook I scored for $3.99 years ago in the bargain books at Borders -- Heartland Baking from the Midwest's Best Cooks.

I removed the price tag from the cover right before taking the photo, by the way -- I didn't want you thinking I was a walking encyclopedia of prices paid for each and every book I own. I can do that with my clothes though! Everything I've tried out of this book has been top-notch. Not surprising, considering each recipe won some prize or another at some state fair or another. This is one of those cookbooks you pick up and even though it's nothing slick or fancy, just looking at the photos and the recipes assures you it's going to be good. Lovely-sounding sample recipes:

Sour Cream Nutmeg Softies

Minnesota Wild Rice Bread

Linda's Lemony Prairie Cake

Mary Todd Lincoln's Cinnamon Cake

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

Go-Anywhere Rhubarb Squares

The recipe I baked was Quick and Easy Pumpkin Pie Bars. Ordinarily, if a recipe calls for a starter ingredient of a boxed cake mix, well, I just keep on flipping those pages -- it seems like cheating to me. I'm more of a make-it-from-scratcher. But I made an exception here because the recipe sounded so good and the photo looked even better.

You add melted butter and an egg to the cake mix to make a thick dough -- almost like cookie dough. Spread most of it into a crust on the bottom of your pan, add a layer of pumpkin pie filling...

... then dot the top with more of the cake mix dough. I'm embarassed to say how much I enjoyed the faux-vanilla-butter scent of the cake mix wafting from the oven as this baked. It's official -- if loving the smell of yellow cake mix is wrong, then I don't wanna be right. The scent dimishes after awhile though and -- well, this is an excellent recipe. The crust and the topping gets plump and crispy and chewy while still maintaining its crustyness on the bottom layer.

The recipe recommends serving it with whipped cream sprinkled with pumpkin pie spices. Instead, I whipped the spices into the whip cream along with powdered sugar, so the result is studded prettily with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

These bars won first place in the children's bars category at the Harvest Baking Contest in New Albany, Indian. And they got a ringing endorsement from my husband who said, "You can make this any old time."

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Pie Bars

1 package 2-layer-size yellow cake mix

1/2 c butter, melted and cooled

3 eggs

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

1 5 oz can (or 2/3 c) evaporated milk

1/2 c packed brown sugar

2 T sugar

2 T butter, softened

Whipped cream

Pumpkin pie spice, as follows:

1 T cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/4 t cloves

1/4 t nutmeg

Combine dry cake mix, melted butter, and ONE egg. Beat until combined. SET ASIDE ONE CUP of the cake-mix mixture.

Spread remaining cake-mix mixture in an ungreased 13x9x2 baking pan. Press to form an even crust.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the remaining eggs, the pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, and 2 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Pour pumpkin mixture over the crust in prepared pan.

Combine the reserved cake mix mixture, the sugar, the 2 T softened butter and the cinnaomon. Dot evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted neart the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into triangles or squares. Serve with whipped cream with pumpkin pie spice whipped in or sprinkled on top.