Pumpkin Pie Bars with Shortbread Crust

Halloween week. Caleb's dinosaur costume: green sweatshirt, felt triangles hot-glued for spines, a stuffed-tube tail, face paint. Total cost: twelve dollars. He looks like a T-Rex designed by someone with a glue gun and a dream. He loves it. Hazel's costume: a pumpkin onesie from the commissary. Six dollars. Adorable. Will be removed within fifteen minutes. Base housing Halloween is a PRODUCTION — every house decorated, every parent in the street, kids running in packs. Nobody trick-or-treats alone. I made caramel apples with the kids. Caleb dipped. Hazel ate plain apple slices and rejected the caramel — what child rejects caramel? MY child. The child who eats kimchi but refuses caramel. There is no logic. There is only Hazel. Ryan carved a pumpkin with Caleb. A dinosaur face. It looked more like a surprised grapefruit, but Caleb declared it 'PERFECT' and that's the only review that matters. Pri is making Maya a 'Filipino fairy princess' costume — tiara and her grandmother's traditional dress. Emily's daughter is a cowgirl. Because Texas. Made beef stew tonight. The Halloween week stew. The food that warms you up after trick-or-treating in 70-degree weather. The tradition doesn't care about the temperature. Dinosaur costume. Pumpkin onesie. Surprised-grapefruit pumpkin. Halloween.

Between the caramel apple dipping, the pumpkin carving, and running herd on a T-Rex and a pumpkin onesie through the whole neighborhood, I needed something I could pull together without much fuss — something that felt seasonal and celebratory without adding chaos to an already gloriously chaotic week. These pumpkin pie bars were exactly that: all the cozy, spiced flavor of a proper pumpkin pie, but sliceable, shareable, and ready before the kids came barreling back through the door with their candy hauls. Caleb declared the surprised-grapefruit pumpkin perfect, and I’m declaring these bars the same.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes (plus cooling) | Servings: 16 bars

Ingredients

Shortbread Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Pumpkin Filling:
1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat & prep pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides for easy lifting.
Make the shortbread crust. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, and salt. Add the cold cubed butter and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to work it in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Par-bake the crust. Bake for 15 minutes, until the edges are just starting to turn golden. Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the filling.
Make the pumpkin filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla until smooth and fully combined.
Assemble & bake. Pour the pumpkin filling evenly over the par-baked crust. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 30–35 minutes, until the filling is set at the edges and only slightly jiggly in the very center.
Cool completely. Allow the bars to cool in the pan at room temperature for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour before slicing. Use the parchment overhang to lift the bars out cleanly.
Slice & serve. Cut into 16 bars. Serve chilled or at room temperature, with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pumpkin Pie Bars with Shortbread Crust — The Sweet Finish to Our Halloween Tradition