Pumpkin Pie Squares

There was a chill in the air here today, and the cool breeze left me craving something warm and comforting, so I begged my hubby to make me one of our favorite, tried and true recipes, Pumpkin Pie Squares! I found this recipe in some magazine years ago, and from the first time we tried it we were in love!

The crust is nutty and buttery, and nice and crisp because you press it into the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan (lined with foil and buttered) and bake it for 15 minutes before you add the filling. You also reserve 1 cup of the crust dough to create sort of a cruchy topping later.

The filling is a creamy mixture of pumpkin and cream cheese that you blend and pour over the baked crust.



The topping is made from a combination of the extra crust you saved and butterscotch chips. Sprinkle the crumbled crust over the top of the smoothed filling, and then finish with a generous covering of butterscotch chips. (As you can see in the picture below, I tend to go very light on the butterscotch chips because I am diabetic, but I also find that using the amount the recipe calls for makes it far too sweet!)

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then lift it out of the pan (using the excess aluminum foil edges) and let it cool completely before cutting it into squares.

The ingredients and measurements are as follows~

Crust:

1 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter (cold)

1 cup quick cooking oats (dry)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Filling:

1-8oz. package of cream cheese

3 eggs

1-15 oz. can of pumpkin*

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:

1 cup of the crust, reserved

2 cups of butterscotch chips

*A note I'd like to add here is that this recipe works best with canned pumpkin NOT canned pumpkin pie filling! Using either will not really change the flavor, but it will change the consistency and your squares will not set as well.