Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Blondies

Just when you thought I had forgotten about Vegan Tuesdays this week, I surprise you all with this awesome recipe for vegan pumpkin pecan white chocolate brownies :) I’m sorry for the delay in today’s post, but I forgot to schedule it for this morning. Then I did not get home until a few minutes ago. Work was very busy today, but I was rewarded with an awesome dinner date with one of my very best friends. We ended up chatting and catching up for three hours. Such a nice time! 

I’ve been so excited to share these delicious fall-inspired pumpkin blondies with you. So excited in fact, that I could not wait any longer to share it! This week I’m presenting recipes for Canadian Thanksgiving. Yesterday, I posted Apple Cranberry Pecan Quinoa Salad to start off Thanksgiving Dinner. Generally speaking, I should not follow a salad post with a dessert recipe! But I just had to share this recipe today. It’s too yummy not to share before all of the Thanksgiving main dishes and entrées :)

 I am a sucker for dark, rich, bittersweet brownies – but I also have become smitten with blondies. This past summer, I made vegan Strawberry Chocolate Blondies for my guest post on Fork and Beans and I fell in love with the brownie’s lighter counterpart. Blondies are the best of brownies (all the moistness and wonderful gooeyness), but can have some really unique flavour combinations. These pumpkin pecan white chocolate blondies are good. So very good! :) I loved the moistness from the pumpkin and all of the wonderful spice from the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The toasted pecans add crunch and the white chocolate melts into the blondie adding the perfect amount of gooey goodness! You will not be disappointed.

Wishing you all a wonderful Vegan Tuesday. :) Please check out The Fig Tree’s Vegan Tuesday page for more Vegan Tuesday posts. xo


Ingredients

  • 2 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
  • 1 cup of Earth Balance butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup of organic vegan white sugar
  • 3/4 cup of brown sugar
  • 1 flax egg
  • 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
  • 1-15 ounce can of pure pumpkin purée
  • 2 cups of vegan white chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup of roughly chopped pecans


Method

1. Preheat oven to 350’F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper – leaving an overhang on all sides. Grease with non-stick cooking spray.

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

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until smooth. Beat in the flax egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in the pumpkin purée. Note: don’t worry if the mixture looks a bit curdled. It’s normal.

4. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips and pecans.

5. Spread the batter evenly in a prepared pan. Bake until the edges begin to pul away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached (about 35 to 40 minutes). Cool completely in the pan.

Store in an airtight container for up to three days.

Yield: about 18 blondies

Source: adapted from My Baking Addiction (originally from Martha Stewart)

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes with Toasted Pecans

These delicious pumpkin spice pancakes have made me incredibly impatient. I was going to share the recipe next weekend, but I just cannot wait any longer. They are so yummy and must be shared ASAP!

I made these pancakes for Jesse and I this past Saturday morning. They were so easy to put together and filled our condo with the yummiest of smells – cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and pumpkin. Mmmm! After we both ate our share of pancakes, we agreed that they were the best pancakes we’ve ever had. The may even trump our previous favourite – Coconut Macadamia Nut Pancakes. The spiced, slightly sweet pancakes made for the perfect breakfast on a cold fall morning. 

This morning, I made another batch of these delicious pancakes for a bunch of our friends. It seems as everyone loved them! It was so much fun to have a sit-down breakfast this morning with a bunch of our closest friends. We chatted, laughed, had some yummy mimosas and even danced a little. One of the best weekends I’ve had in a while topped off by one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a while! I’m feeling pretty darn lucky :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. And I hope you make these delicious pancakes soon and enjoy them as much as we did :)

I’ll be back on Tuesday with the 4th instalment of Vegan Tuesdays. I’m extra excited, as I have a special guest post coming up this week! :)

Ingredients
  • 1 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • dash of ground ginger
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cup of pure pumpkin purée
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoon of canola oil or melted unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup of toasted, chopped pecans
  • pure maple syrup for serving

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200’F (to keep pancakes warm).

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Stir with a fork to combine well. 

3. Mix together the milk, pumpkin purée, egg and oil or butter in a large liquid measuring cup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Whisk together until just combined. Note: It’s okay if the batter still has a few lumps.

4. Heat a greased skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add 1/3 cup scoops of batter to the pan. Let the pancakes cook until bubbles begin to form on the top surface. Carefully flip with a spatula and cook the second side until golden brown. Transfer the cooked pancakes to an oven safe dish and place in oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remainder of the batter. Note: Regrease pan as needed.

Serve with pure mail syrup and chopped pecans.

Yield: approximately 12 pancakes

Source: Annie’s Eats (adapted from Martha Stewart)

Pumpkin Pie Bars

And so continues my obsession with pumpkin…
After the Pumpkin Maple Macaroni & Cheese, the next item on my Fall baking to-do list was pumpkin bars with butterscotch chips. What sold me on this recipe was the crust: a pecan shortbread crust with brown sugar and oats. When topped with the whipped cream cheese, pumpkin topping these little bars are pretty irresistible. And butterscotch chips…how have I not tried these before? They are addictive! 

What do you have on your fall baking to-do list?


Crust & Topping Ingredients 
  • 1 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar; firmly packed
  • 12 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter; cut into pieces
  • 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Filling Ingredients
  • 8 ounces of cream cheese; softened
  • 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1-15 ounce can of pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • Butterscotch chips; for topping

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil. Combine the flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a small mixing bowl and toss with a fork. Add the pieces of butter to the dry ingredients and cut it in with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the oats and chopped pecans.

2. Reserve 1 cup of the crust mixture and set aside. Add the remaining crust mixture to the prepared baking pan and press onto the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Bake the crust alone in the oven for 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the filling.

3. To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well combined.

4. Once the crust has been removed from the oven, pour the filling into the pan and smooth over crust. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips (as desired). Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve. Caution: may fill your home with delicious scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm!

Source: Annie’s Eats, originally from Kraft