White Pumpkin Chip Butterscotch Blondies

White Pumpkin Chip Butterscotch Blondies

I hate cold weather. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. To me, fall marks the onset of snowstorms, frozen fingers, nippy winds, and general, dark unhappiness. Nevertheless, fall does bring with it two redeeming features—fall clothing and pumpkin. Now, if you’re like me, you would love to use pumpkin year-round and ignore culinary seasonal traditions. Unfortunately, the grocery stores and I do not see eye-to-eye. Countless times, I have tried to buy pumpkin only to be told that it is “not in season” or “only carried during certain times of the year”. Frankly, I call shenanigans because canned pumpkin is good for like umpteen years (or, ya know, two), but fall is the one time a year that I can lay down my burning torch and buy pumpkin in peace, in bulk, and in good fashion.

 

            Today’s recipe is a modification of an old favorite recipe from a dilapidated 1970s era Betty Crocker cookbook that my mother has owned ever since I can remember.

Ooooh, vintage

 I remember as a kid wanting to make brownies, but I was upset because we had no chocolate. So, using flawless little kid logic, I found a recipe for butterscotch brownies that didn’t require any chocolate. Somehow, I thought that melding these ingredients would give me delicious, chocolaty brownies through some sort of super magical blending of ingredients, with a hint of butterscotch to boot!  Alas, the brownies were not chocolaty, but thankfully were still quite delicious. Many years later, I am revamping the recipe and adding my own touch—and also a hint of chocolate.

White Pumpkin Chip Butterscotch Blondies:

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

½ can pumpkin

1 tsp. Kahlua

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¾ cup white chocolate chips

¼ cup Smucker’s (or other brand) butterscotch caramel sauce

2 tbsp cream cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350^o. Melt butter. Combine in large bowl with brown sugar, egg, Kahlua, and pumpkin. Once well-blended, add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until batter forms, then stir in white chocolate chips until just mixed.

2. Spread batter in well-greased 8x8 pan. Drizzle butterscotch caramel sauce over batter, and disperse cream cheese in dollops spread out across the pan. Using a knife, marble in sauce and cream cheese using swirling, loose figure-8 motions.

Om nom nom nom batter

3. Bake 30-40 minutes until edges begin to separate from pan and center is no longer jiggly. Let cool and then enjoy!

I must say, these disappeared within 2 days. Although I am still not a fan of fall, I love any excuse to give people (mostly myself) pumpkiny goodness J Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember: when in doubt, bake!

<3 Lauren