Easy Pumpkin Squares

EASY PUMPKIN SQUARES

Author: Shirley Braden of Gluten Free Easily

 

• 1 egg
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ cup oil (any kind)
• ⅙ cup water (don’t stress over this measurement; just fill ⅓ measuring cup halfway full … you can empty or add water as necessary until you’re right at the halfway mark)
• ¾ cup sugar (or coconut sugar or honey; if you use honey, omit water)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup gluten-free flour mix* (I use my Two-Ingredient Flour Mix, see notes for grain-free option)
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp each ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon (or ¾ tsp pumpkin pie spice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 9 x 13 pan.
Beat egg and add other wet ingredients in a bowl (at least medium-sized); mix well.
Add dry ingredients.
The batter will just cover the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle some cinnamon over the batter if you like.
Bake about 25 - 30 minutes. Squares will be thin and moist.
Let cool before cutting.

The original recipe called these “bars” and included frosting. These treats are too light and delicate to be called bars or need frosting. If you want to gussy them up a bit, feel free to sift confectioner’s (powdered) sugar on them. Add the confectioner’s sugar right before serving and do not cover. Because they are moist, covering them will cause the confectioner’s sugar to “melt” into the squares.

If you use fresh pumpkin, you can usually omit the water as the fresh pumpkin tends to have a higher water content. I love these made with fresh pumpkin. They are so light and luscious when made with fresh pumpkin. Look for the small “sugar” pumpkins to do some baking---not the ones that you carve into jack-o-lanterns. By the way, no xanthan or guar gum is needed in this recipe. One gfe reader, Terri, likes to double the recipe for thicker squares that are more like cake bars. She bakes them just a tad longer.

*The gluten-free flour mix I make consists of three parts Asian white rice flour (much more finely ground than typical white rice flour) and two parts cornstarch. I make 5 lbs of this mix at a time. I use three 1-lb bags of Asian white rice flour and two 1-lb boxes of Argo cornstarch. Mix well, but gently in a very large bowl and then transfer to airtight storage containers (like glass jars or Tupperware). I realize this gluten-free flour mix is nutritionally not the best, but I have issues with many of the healthier options like buckwheat, sorghum, etc. But, feel free to try your favorite gluten-free flour mix. If you're not gluten free (yet), you can substitute your favorite all-purpose flour. If you want to make these squares grain free,gfe reader Kathi successfully made this recipe using ¾ cup coconut flour and ¼ cup almond flour instead of the gluten-free all-purpose flour.

Adapted from a recipe by Mary Burgdorff shared on the celiac listserv and celiac.com