Pumpkin Coffee Blondies

No, I am not brewing the famous Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks!

As much as I love fall, You don’t see Pumpkin puree on my regular shopping list. But last week was different. I had to shop for my kids virtual cooking class.

My favorite grocery store ‘Shoprite’ offers Dietician services for free. One of the programs they do every year to have ‘Healthy Halloween cooking and Parade’ for kids. Its really wonderful program. My kids have been regular participants. I love it because,

Everything is free!! You just need to register and let them know if your kids have any food allergies.
Healthy Halloween starts with healthy cooking class first. All kids will make a ‘no fire involved’ food item. It can be anything like breakfast, dinner, snacks in a healthy way. Kids are encouraged to use their imagination and they get to try the food afterwards and take it home.
Second – Through out shoprite, they have department stations with healthy treats. Not so fast – the kids have to solve the puzzles (they get help from the staff) to get the treats. Healthy snack samples, coupons, stickers, pencils, lunch boxes, bags are some of the stuff you receive.
Third – After all the stations are covered, the dieticians teach kids about healthy eating. How your dinner plate should have greens, proteins and carbs etc OR what foods are healthy with fiber.
Finally there will be a small parade and picture taken by the staff.

Over the years, we have really really enjoyed this program. My kids learned a lot and started trying new and different foods over the years.

Unfortunately this year, its all made virtual. Shoprite still tried to make it as good as before. Kids made Peanut butter-chocolate chip-pumpkins with oats and honey, got active with high intensity work outs for 5 mins in between, Made foamy cauldrons and caramel apples. IT was really fun even from home. I appreciate and thank Shoprite for all the awesome and healthy programs!!

I highly recommend to take advantage of their monthly programs and dietician services, if you are have shoprite near you. Click here to check out all the info.

Ok, Coming back to the post, these Pumpkin blondies are the perfect medley of fall Pumpkin and warm coffee in your hands but more in bread form. Trust me, the addition of one secret ingredient aka ‘Coffee Chocolate Chips’ takes this recipe to whole new level with every bite. You can find them in the baking aisle and I guess this is a seasonal item. So stock them up if you like.

They are the perfect bites to enjoy your fall weather with ingredients right out of your pantry. Make it festive with the spiced up buttercream on the top. Its the simple buttercream spiced with pumpkin pie spice which adds the extreme aroma of the 4 spices that make up the pie spice(Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves).

The ultimate pecans come into picture for the crunch part of the bars. They add the slight nutty but crunchiness to the bars. What good is a cake without pecans or brownie without hazelnuts and banana bread without walnuts. No, no never. I hope you agree with me.

Lets dive in!

Pumpkin Coffee Blondies

Servings: 2 dozen
Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Difficulty: Easy
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Pumpkin Blondies with Coffee Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 tbsp Pumpkin Spice
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup Pumpkin puree
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup Coffee Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup pecans – roughly chopped
1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1.5 tsp Pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Preheat Oven to 350 degree F. Line a 8×8 square cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, pumpkin puree and mix till combined.
Add all the dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking soda and mix it one more time.
Fold in Coffee chocolate chips and pecans into the batter. Do not overmix the batter.
Pour in the prepared baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from the pan, cut into bars and let cool completely before topping with buttercream.
While the bars are cooling, prepare the buttercream. First, beat the butter in the bowl until it is light and pale. Add the powdered sugar and spice and beat for another 2-3 mins.
Decorate your bars individually like I did or spread the buttercream completely on the top of bars. Enjoy!

The buttercream frosting recipe is good to decorate on top of the bars or pipe them like I did.
If you are using the buttercream, make sure the bars are completely cooled before frosting.