Recipe: Pumpkin Carrot Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

I stumbled upon this recipe at fitsugar and knew I wanted to try it!  Pumpkin Carrot Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting.

So Sunday evening I did.

I didn't take in-progress pictures.  I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. It was messy with the pumpkin filling and the softened cream cheese, etc.

Here are the ingredients (Modifications in Bold).

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Earth Balance (or other butter substitute) --> Used 1/3 c. real butter (unsalted).
2 eggs
2 large egg whites --> I used this liquid egg white instead of wasting two precious yolks.
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin pie filling --> I had pumpkin puree, not pie filling.
2/3 cup finely shredded carrot
+ I added a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves to make up for not using pie filling.  No specified amount, I just threw in a couple shakes of each.

Cream cheese topping:
4 ounces light cream cheese, softened --> Philadelphia 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon skim milk

Here are the directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Spray a 15 x 10 jellyroll pan with cooking spray. --> 12 x 9" pan
2. In small bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In larger bowl, use electric mixer to beat sugar, Earth Balance, and brown sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, egg whites, pumpkin pie filling, and carrots. Beat until well blended.
4. Add flour mixture and mix until well blended. Spread onto greased pan.
5. To prepare cream cheese topping: mix together cream cheese, sugar, and milk until thoroughly blended.
6. Drop teaspoon-fulls of topping over pumpkin batter and swirl and cut mixture into batter with a butter knife.

8. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. --> Due to different pan size, this stayed in the oven for about 35 minutes.

You can see the multiple forking sites.  

Otherwise, this might have looked a little prettier.

 9. Cool in pan completely on wire rack before cutting into squares

 

The Verdict?

I will let the pan speak for itself.  About 26 hours after coming out of the oven.

Yeah that's trouble.  Luckily I wasn't the only one responsible for this mess. I'm pretty sure that makes this dessert not so healthy when you put away about 1/3 of the pan over 2 days.  Oh well.  I did go to an hour-long spinning class tonight if that counts for anything.