Happy Halloween, dear readers! I hope you all had a day filled with magic, mystery, and (of course) delicious food. Here is a festive fall recipe to celebrate the day.

I have adapted Paula Deen’s pumpkin bars so that they are more flavorful, and more munchable. Her recipe gives us a great start, with an unbelievably moist and tender pumpkin cake topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting. But extra spice and a thinner cake make for a more finger-friendly (and finger-lickin’ GOOD) pumpkin bar. And the toasted pecan topping really takes this tasty dessert over the top…

Pumpkin Bars
adapted from Paula Deen’s recipe

For the bars:
1 cup oil
1 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9×13 inch pans with non-stick spray and set aside.

In a medium electric mixer bowl, beat the sugar and oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate. Add the pumpkin and the vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture, mixing on low speed until smooth and creamy. Split the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth with a spatula. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and butter together. Next, add the powdered sugar (be sure to sift it if it is lumpy). Add the vanilla, and beat the frosting until it is smooth and creamy.

Frost the cakes and slice into bars. Sprinkle with pecans, if desired. Yield 32 to 40 bars. Enjoy!!

Ever find yourself in a pinch where you just NEED brownies (I mean… NEED!) but you only have cocoa powder on hand? Do not despair!! I only had some lovely, rich, Dutch-process cocoa powder on hand the other day, when the need for brownies completely overcame me. Luckily, I came across this stellar recipe. I cannot recommend it highly enough. A little tweaking, and voila!! Deliciously rich, chewy, dark cocoa brownies. Enjoy!

Dark Cocoa Brownies
adapted from Best Cocoa Brownies

3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-process is the way to go!)
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of baking powder
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and place the rack in the lower third of the oven. Line an 8×8″ baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, heat the butter over low heat until almost completely melted. Add the sugar, cocoa, and salt. Stir over low heat until butter is completely melted and mixture is hot to the touch. Remove from the heat.

Add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition. Add vanilla. As you add these ingredients, the mixture will thicken slightly and turn smooth and shiny.

Sprinkle in the flour and baking powder, stirring until the dry ingredients disappear. Then stir for 40 more strokes. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Top the batter with the nuts, if desired.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean. Cool completely. Remove the brownies by lifting up the ends of the parchment paper. Cut into squares, as desired.

My sweet friend recently lent me her family’s old cookbooks to peruse. I love the cookbooks, but my favorite thing is seeing which little slips of paper and newspaper clippings people stuff inside these old cookbooks. These are some of the greatest recipes in my family’s cookbooks, so I made sure to copy down some of my friend’s too! Here is a great one I found – enjoy!

Chewy Blondies

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips (this is my addition)
1/2 cup coconut flake (this is my addition, too)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9×13 inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a large electric mixer bowl, combine the brown sugar and the butter, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla, and cream the mixture together. Add the oats, flour, salt, soda, wallnuts, and both flavors of chips, and stir to combine.

Spread the batter in your prepared pan, using a spatula to even it off. Sprinkle the coconut flake on top of the batter. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Cool completely before slicing into bars.

Uuuhhh, looks a little scrummie if you ask me . . .

Here is my Auntie Moo Moo Chocolate Pudding Scrummie. Back in the 1950s, she would make this dessert for her three daughters so that they could have a special treat when they came home from school.

This dessert is like the fudgiest brownie with a built-in chocolate syrup! The consistency is half-cake-like, half pudding-like. The crispy toasted top gives way to tender cake and steamy chocolate goo underneath. Top it off with some freshly whipped cream, and you have . . . well . . . scrummie!!

Disclaimer: This dessert is very, very sweet – hope you have a sweet tooth!!

Chocolate Pudding Scrummie
from my Auntie Moo Moo

1 cup flour
¾ cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup cold water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8-inch square pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, cocoa, baking powder, walnuts, milk, butter, and vanilla. Spread evenly in the bottom of your prepared pan.

Next, mix together the brown sugar, white sugar, and cocoa powder and sprinkle over batter in pan. Pour the cold water over the top, and do not stir!

Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold – topped with whipped cream or ice cream!

Christmas gift exchange in elementary school when I was in Third Grade. We all brought in small, generic gifts. Then we drew the name of a classmate and exchanged gifts with them. I still have the gift that I got: the Gold Medal Alpha-Bakery Cookbook!

There is a recipe for every letter of the alphabet from Apple Crisp to Zebra Cookies. Well, F is for Fudge Brownies, and my go-to brownie recipe for the past 20 years has evolved from the recipe found in this fun cookbook.

I make these all the time – they are so delicious and turn out perfectly every single time. They are rich, fudgy, and oh-so-satisfying when you need that little chocolate fix! The tops and edges are crusty, crumbly, chewy, and sweet, the insides are gooey, rich, fudgy heaven. Studded with white chocolate chunks and toasted walnut pieces? Oh, yes please! The perfect combination of textures and flavors for the most amazing brownie ever. In my humble opinion.

Fudge Brownies
Adapted from the Alpha-Bakery Children’s Cookbook

1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Tollhouse in this recipe)
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk or half-and-half
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.

Melt chips and butter in a pot over low heat. Remove from heat, add sugar, flour, salt and baking powder – the dough will be stiff. Then add vanilla and eggs. Add nuts or more chips if desired and then bake in prepared pan for 25-30 minutes.

I know this post comes at a bad time for people like my mom, who gave up chocolate for Lent, but I was absolutely craving some gooey, rich, warm chocolate last week, and I had to make some brownies! I wanted to try out a new recipe that I’d seen in a magazine, but decided to make some major changes to it. These brownies turned out with a nice, deep chocolate flavor, delightfully crispy edges, and a moist, dense, and chewy texture.

Chewy Chocolaty Brownies
Inspired by Palmer House Brownies from Bon Appetit magazine

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and apply cooking spray to an 8×8-inch square baking pan. (As you can see in my pics, I made 2 smaller pans because I like the chewy edges so much!)

In a small heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.

Blend eggs, vanilla, and sugar with an electric mixer until light in color and fluffy – about 1 minute. Pour melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, and whisk together until incorporated. Add sifted flour and baking powder. Fold in gently with a rubber spatula. Spread evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle walnuts over the brownie batter, pressing gently into the chocolate.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the edges are crispy and set. Serve warm or cool with a big scoop of ice cream.

(My smaller pans only took about 30 minutes.)