It is so great to have a real porch worthy of modeling our garden's produce. Those dried corn stalks also came from our garden. Here is an amazing, autumn dessert:
Pumpkin Spice Bars
1 pkg spice cake mix (or use the dry ingredients in your favorite spice cake recipe)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup finely chopped white chocolate (or sweetened baking chips/morsels)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
3/4 cup finely ground oats
powdered sugar (optional)
Note: I blended the chocolate morsels and oats, separately, in a blender.
Preheat oven to 350. Combine first four ingredients (unless you omit the pecans, then it is the first three) and blend with a fork or pastry cutter. Reserve 1 cup crumbs for streusel topping. Press remaining crumbs into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.
Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until puffy and set. Cool for 20 minutes.
Beat cream cheese until creamy. Add brown sugar, pumpkin, egg and vanilla; beat until blended. Pour filling over crust.
Stir white chocolate, 1 tablespoon butter, and oats into reserved 1 cup streusel. Sprinkle over filling. Bake fore 30 minutes or until edges begin to brown and center is set. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares (if it is too warm, the filling will run and the square will not keep its shape). Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
