Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Potluck #51: Holidays and Cooking and Recipes - Oh My!

I love anything pumpkin and love to watch Paula Deen. Pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing on the Food Network website were just too tempting. To make 24 small bars rather than 48 I went to Recipe Ingredient Conversion Calculator to halve the recipe.

Original Recipe:

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated Sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps. ground cinnamon
1 tps salt
1 tsp baking soda

Icing:
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softenened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix and low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter in to a greased 13 by 10 inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Adjusted Recipe:
Pumpkin Bars
2 eggs
3/4 cup + 1 Tsp + 1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7.5 oz can pumpkin
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Icing:
4 oz pkg cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I entered the directions on the conversion calculator. I wish the directions would reflect the changes in the amount of the ingredients such as size of baking pan and length of time to be baked (if any). When halving the recipe I would probably use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan, but bake for 30 minutes.

To good eating and a Happy Thanksgiving,

Diane