Pumpkin White Chip Macadamia Bars

Originally I was going to make these for women's Bible study on Tuesday, but I ended up feeling too sick and too exhausted to go. I had worked the night before, slept until 12, went and got my sweet children from our awesome babysitter, then came home. Too nauseated to drink coffee, I spent the afternoon in a fog. Once Steve got home, I laid down and my wonderful husband fed the children and let me sleep until 7:30, when it was time to put the kids to bed. I know it was because I was coming down with something, because then I got a bad cold. So. Now I am making these for home fellowship. Steve doesn't really like pumpkin-y desserts, but I didn't want to waste the ingredients since I already had them. I am hoping there will be other things there that he will like. Sometimes he eats what I make even if it's not his favorite, because he knows how much my identity is tied up in the food I make. Ha ha. So this recipe is from a cookbook a friend of mine passed to me. She was all "I have these two cookbooks that I can give to Goodwill or give to you." Of course I wanted them. The first one was like authentic Italian cooking. Half of the ingredients I had never heard of. And a lot of the recipes were for seafood (I guess because Italy is like an archipelago or something and sticks way out into the sea) with a very descriptive picture for each recipe. Yuck. So that one I decided to pass on to the good folks at Goodwill. The other one is Nestle Make-It-Simple Entertaining. There are a couple of recipes in here I will try, then I'll probably pass that one along as well. Okay so here's the recipe for the yummy fall dessert:

Pumpkin White Chip Macadamia Bars
2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup solid pack pumpkin
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups (12 oz pkg) white morsels, divided
2/3 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (I gave away my dull PC chopper, so I just pounded them with my PC mallet...some of them were pulverized, while others were in big chunks...oh well)

Combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter and sugars in large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until blended; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the morsels and the nuts. Spread into greased 15 1/2 inch by 10 inch jelly-roll pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 18 to 22 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack. Place remaining morsels in heavy duty plastic bag. Microwave on medium-high (70%) power for 45 seconds; knead. Microwave at additional 10-second intervals, kneading until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to drizzle over bars. Makes 4 dozen bars.

So these were very moist and tasty. I told my kids they were brownies, because I knew they wouldn't want pumpkin anything. Becky couldn't even tell they were pumpkin, she thought they were ginger. So I would say this is definitely a keeper. Yumm-o.