Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

I hope you aren't sick of pumpkin recipes yet because I have another great one for you! I made these squares to bring to a potluck last week and they were a huge hit with everyone there. There was only one left at the end of the night! The pumpkin spice square has a chewy and almost brownie-like texture, and you can't go wrong with the abundance of chocolate chips both inside and on top of the square. 

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

 1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 and 1/2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips, divide use - I used a mixture of both semisweet and milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9x13" baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two sides. Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate, large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in the pumpkin puree. The mixture may look curdled at this point, but don't worry it is supposed to look like that! Reduce the mixer speed to low, then slowly mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. This batter is very thick so it helps to use the back of a large spoon or spatula to spread it. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips evenly over the top of the batter. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges begin to pull away from the side of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with just a few crumbs attached. 

Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. You can place them in the fridge or freezer to speed up cooling. Once the bars have cooled, lift them from the pan using the tin foil overhang, and cut into squares. Alternately, you could just cut the squares right in the pan and take out the bars one by one. 

*Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart