Baked Pumpkin Maple Bars
Baked Pumpkin Maple Bars provide everything you have been craving about doughnuts, without all of the guilt. Pumpkin gives them an extra moist texture and maple makes them perfectly sweet! They definitely hit the spot on a cool fall morning!
Servings 14
Ingredients
- Pumpkin Bars:
- 1/4 c. warm water
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 T. yeast
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
- 5 c. flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- Maple Icing:
- 3 c. powdered sugar
- dash salt
- 1 tsp. maple extract
- evaporated milk about 3-4 T.
Instructions
- Add water, yeast and 1 Tablespoon of sugar to a large mixing bowl.Let sit until bubbly, about 5 minutes.
- Add pumpkin, butter, brown sugar and eggs to the yeast mixture. Gently stir.
- Measure 4 cups of flour and salt in a sifter or separate bowl. Sift, or pour, into wet ingredients. Use electric mixer and dough hooks to mix together. Gradually add more flour as needed. You want the dough to begin to pull away from the bowl. I ended up using about 5 cups of flour total. Let mixer kneed dough for 5 minutes.
- Cover and let dough rise until doubled, about an hour.
- Roll dough out into a 14" x 10" rectangle. Cut bars into 2" x 5" pieces.
- Transfer bars to a greased baking sheet. Let rise about 20-30 minutes.
- Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.
- Cool and frost with Maple Icing.
- MAPLE ICING:
- Mix powdered sugar, salt, maple extract and a little bit of evaporated milk together. I always start with just a little milk and gradually add more until I reach desired spreading consistency.