By Brayden turned eight. Chocolate cake, sixth year. The annual request is now as reliable as the sunrise. The party was in the backyard — twenty kids (his social circle expands annually like the garden), hot dogs, burgers, a bounce house (rented — $75, our biggest birthday splurge ever, but eight-year-olds and bounce houses are a combination so perfectly joyful that the $75 was worth every cent).
Tyler was there. Tyler is always there. Tyler and Brayden are inseparable — they sit together at school, play together at recess, and have developed a secret handshake that involves approximately forty-seven steps and takes ninety seconds to complete. Tyler's mom, a woman named Jen, has become my friend — the kind of friend who drops her kid off with a wave and picks him up with a conversation and brings a casserole when she comes to pick up. Jen brings casseroles. She's my people.
Cody and Brayden have been fishing three times now. They've caught two fish total — one bass that was too small to keep and one catfish that Cody was terrified to touch (the barbs, he said, the barbs — my brother, who survived addiction and jail, is afraid of catfish barbs). Brayden doesn't care about the catch. He cares about the rock, the sandwiches, the stories. Cody tells him about growing up in Broken Arrow — the safe parts, the funny parts, the parts where he and I would play in the backyard of the old house before the tornado, before everything. The fishing trips are becoming a different kind of history: oral history, told on a rock at Keystone Lake, between peanut butter sandwiches and uncaught fish.
Six years of chocolate cake requests from that kid, and this year I wanted something I could make in a sheet pan and hand out to twenty sugar-charged eight-year-olds without wrestling with frosting in the August heat — and these pumpkin chocolate chip bars were exactly that. The pumpkin keeps them impossibly moist, the chocolate chips are generous and unapologetic, and honestly, between the bounce house and the forty-seven-step secret handshake, nobody had time to sit down for a proper slice anyway. Brayden approved. Tyler ate three.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 24 bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and line it with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy removal.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add wet ingredients. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract and pumpkin puree until fully combined. The batter may look slightly curdled — that’s normal.
- Combine. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.
- Fold in chocolate chips. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips by hand, reserving the remaining 1/2 cup for the top.
- Bake. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the reserved chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 28–32 minutes, or until the center is set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
- Cool and cut. Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, at least 1 hour, before lifting out and cutting into 24 bars.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 215 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 105mg