It is fall, Thanksgiving is fast approaching! Have you decided what to make for Thanksgiving? You have found a splendid way of using the pile of pumpkins in your garden shed.

“Pumpkin here and pumpkins there

Under a tree and at the fair

Many are orange and some are not

Pumpkin patches sure have a lot

Keep them plain or make a face

I display them on a bookcase

Nibble on seeds, and bake a pie!

So much we need to do, oh my ....”

When my youngest son was learning his beginning sounds, his teacher gave them this acrostic poem in the fall season.

She always uses season inspired themes to teach her class and those concepts would stick. This poem gave my son justification to ask for a fall treat! ‘But Mummy the poem says we have to bake a pie he would announce with excitement’.

I baked a pie, but the last line says ‘so much we need to do…’ how about another pumpkin treat, we still have a lot of them under the tree oh…. The boy loved pumpkin bars because of the combination of the moist cake and the silky cream cheese frosting! ‘Alright son’, I would yield and make a pumpkin treat.

Thanksgiving was big in our home. My father had a lot of respect for the founding fathers of the Nation, he would read to us about their encounters with the native Indians.

William Bradford was a common name to be mentioned in our household.

My mother handed down the culture of Thanksgiving intentionally and that made us host many friends from our church during Thanksgiving.

The Amish 

Most of my cooking is greatly influenced by the Amish. My grandmother was an ex-Amish.

Though she left the strict order, their way of living she still embraced. I was so curious to learn about her childhood because she did many things differently.

I spent a lot of time with her while growing up and I fondly remember the stories about the Amish. She still kept her bonnet and Grandpa would occasionally wear his distinctive wide hat.

I learned that the Amish are a religious group of people who migrated from Europe to America to find freedom of worship. Their forefathers faced severe persecution during the Reformation era in Europe.

They arrived and settled in various parts of this country. My grandma grew up in Lancaster, PA where we have quite a big settlement of the Amish. 

She told me that they firmly believed in doing what their fathers did. The girls would diligently acquire skills from their mothers in fields of baking, sewing, gardening, and other house chores.

They perfected their culinary skills by cooking for large gatherings every Sunday after the service.

Grandma was shunned for leaving the Amish but she managed to survive and thrive, thanks to her adventurous personality.

AMISH RECIPES

I fell in love with recipes because they are simple and call for ingredients that are easy to find in your pantry.

Armed with gardening skills, Grandma taught her children to eat what they grew in the garden. Though some of her children did not have green thumbs, you had to know how to tend a garden.

Our pumpkin patch had lots of pumpkins during fall as the little poem says. We had to get creative on how to use up garden produce. Though we sold, and stored some in the cellar, a lot would be left.

Amish recipes always saved the day. I am delighted to share with you an amazing pumpkin bar recipe whose taste will remain arched in the memories of your family. They will keep longing for fall and Thanksgiving.

AMISH PUMPKIN BARS

Amish pumpkin bars are easy, you require minimal baking skills and tips from an Amish cookbook!

To make the bar you require all-purpose flour, sugar, pumpkin puree, baking soda, baking powder, salt, eggs, spices, and canola oil.

Preheat the oven to 150 C or 300 F, and grease your 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and oil, adding one egg at a time. Beat on high speed with an electric hand-held mixer until the mixture is smooth and creamy in texture.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the flour, spices, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Make sure all the ingredients are distributed evenly in the flour. Sift the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and mix. Fold in the pumpkin puree and mix with a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon.

Pour the Amish pumpkin bar batter into the baking tin, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Check readiness by inserting a wooden skewer at the center of the pumpkin bar. It should come out clean.

Let the bar cool on the cooling wire rack in the cake pan. Once the bar is completely cool, spread a layer of cream cheese frosting on the top of the pumpkin bar using a spatula knife. Cut into squares and serve in a pan.

Making the cream cheese frosting

The bars are not complete without this luscious cream cheese frosting.

Combine the ingredients; cream cheese, and powdered sugar, and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Chill in the refrigerator until the pumpkin cake is cooled down.

Let us look at the ingredient in detail, I can't help it as a food scientist.

INGREDIENTS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

All-purpose flour

All-purpose flour has always worked fine for me, however, cake flour can be a suitable substitute.

Sugar

Sugar adds a depth of sweetness to the pumpkin cake. There are other nutritious substitutes such as honey, maple syrup, or stevia sugar.

Some people entirely omit sugar because the pumpkins are loaded with sugar. Sun-ripened pumpkins are exceptionally sweet.

Eggs

Eggs enrich the batter with proteins. In addition, the eggs enhance the structure of the pumpkin bar by making it light and fluffy.

Vegetable oil

Vegetable oil such as canola oil, coconut oil, or sunflower oil. Oil adds moisture to the batter. It is light in weight, making the pumpkin batter fluffy and tender as well.

Pumpkin puree

The best pumpkin puree is the one made from scratch. Our organically grown pumpkins are very nutritious and rich in pumpkin flavor.

Baking Soda and Baking Powder

Baking soda reacts with the ingredients in the pumpkin batter releasing the gas.

The gas is trapped in the gluten strands making the structure of the cake light, airy and moist. Without these ingredients, your pumpkin bars will be very dense.

Salt

Salt has a distinct flavor that balances with the sweet ingredients.

Pumpkin spice

Our pumpkin spice is a homemade combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves. This spice elevates the deliciousness of the pumpkin bars.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• Butter
• Cream cheese - Cream cheese has a tangy, tart flavor that blends well with pumpkin sheet cake.
• Whipping cream
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla essence
• Milk
• Salt 

EXPERT TIP

Resist the urge of over mixing. Over-mixing will activate the gluten strands in the wheat. This will explain tough and rubbery pumpkin bars.

Measure your ingredients accurately. Excess flour will compromise the amount of moisture in the pumpkin bar batter. Practice the scoop and level method when measuring flour.

FAQ AMISH PUMPKIN BARS

It is recommended to freeze the bars before you frost. Wrap with plastic wrap before you slice the bars and slip them into a freezer-friendly bag.

You can make the bars ahead to reduce work on Thanksgiving. Remember the poem said ‘There’s so much to be done’ lol