pumpkin nutella cookie bars

Mimi 🍰:

I GOT YOUR BOX!!!!!

Omg it smells so good! 

Omg. Stuffed w Nutella. Omg omg omg so delicious 

The fricken best thing ever

         They're great!!!!! So so good. Thank you so so much!

That's the text my niece sent after she got these pumpkin nutella bars in the mail from me - a few weeks ago she sent me a pin from Pinterest with a note that she hoped they would come in the mail hahaha. So I thought I'd do just that for her.   If any of my other nieces want something in the mail they should let me know ;)

Shipping them was easy - remove the entire baked thing from the pan by lifting the foil out and leave them whole instead of cutting up into bars, wrap tight in more foil and bubble wrap and then put in a priority box. It took 3 days for her to get them and she said they were still all in one piece and super moist - this is a winner recipe for sure!

I (for once) didn't change a thing - found the recipe here at crazy for crust. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup Nutella

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350'. Line a 9x9" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

2. Place melted butter, pumpkin, and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer if you prefer). Mix until smooth, about 30 seconds. Mix in egg yolk, baking soda, salt, spices, and vanilla. Mix in flour until batter is smooth. It'll be a soft batter.

3. Press half the batter in the bottom of the pan. The batter is sticky so you may want to spray your hands with cooking spray. It'll be a thin layer in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 8 minutes.

4. Place Nutella in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for just a few seconds until pourable. Pour evenly over the top of the partially baked crust. Spread it carefully so it doesn't rip the cookie bars. Scoop tablespoons of batter of the top and carefully spread with your fingers. It won't be a smooth layer but will mostly cover.

5. Bake an additional 17-20 minutes until the top is no longer glossy and the edges are golden brown. Cool completely before slicing.

6. Makes 16 bars. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. 

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these (along with pumpkin roll) for my niece's birthday at her request. She found the recipe on Pinterest from the "ambitious kitchen". While making them I was thinking how much work they were and I should have known that a recipe from someone called the ambitious kitchen was going to be challenging but didn't think they were going to be anything special...and then I ate one. I take back that they were too much work, it's totally worth it! Once I figured out how to roll the dough around the nutella it wasn't hard at all,  really - you need to try these cookies.

rolling the dough around nutella

The time consuming part is rolling the dough around the nutella so the nutella doesn't leak out, I followed her directions and then added little bits of dough to any places on the dough balls that I thought might leak and it turned out great - didn't have any that lost it's filling. The final touch is sprinkling coarse salt on top after baking...OMG delish.

a different step for me was browning the butter
before adding it to the dough - browning adds
an almost nutty flavor and smells so good!