Pumpkin Salted Caramel Blondies

Hooray, getting over my prejudice towards pumpkin deserts! And hooray for me overcoming my fear of making caramel!

 

Making caramel is scary- all the watching, the monitoring, the constant fear of burning- it's one of the scariest aspects of baking (see also: assembling layered cakes). That's why I've never done it before, even though I love salted caramel, I mean I LOVE salted caramel.

 

But my dad was in town this weekend so I had to go big or go home.

 

 

And guess what... I did it. And this stuff tastes awesome. And you know what else? That's not even the whole desert! I also made this deliciousness that the sauce just goes on top of.

 

So please make these, and I hope you're enjoying Fall as much as I am!

 

Your ingredients: Flour, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, salt (I finally got to use my fancy sea salt!), Baking Soda, butter, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, pumpkin puree, Caramel Sauce

 

Whisk together your flour, cinnamon and nutmeg

 

Cream together the butter and brown sugar, then add the egg and vanilla, then the pumpkin puree, then add the flour mixture slowly until just combined.

 

Spread half the batter evenly in the pan, bake it for 10 minutes. Pour on some caramel sauce, spread the rest of the batter on top, and bake for 30 more minutes. When you take it out of the oven sprinkle some sea salt on top.

 

Serve it warm with some of that caramel sauce drizzled on top- you can use store-bought sauce if you put some sea salt in it, but you should make this sauce, because it was easy and it's delicious, and cutting open a vanilla bean and scraping out the seeds made me feel like probably the most fancy, professional baker ever. And it's gorgeous. Look at it.

 

Pumpkin Salted Caramel Blondies

From Baked Bree

2 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

Sea Salt and Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x9 square pan.

 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

In an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla, then the pumpkin puree. Add in the flour mixture slowly until just combined.

 

Spread half the batter evenly into the pan, then bake for 10 minutes.

 

Pour caramel sauce over the top, then spread the rest of the batter on top. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.