Table Haven: "Timberlakes" (Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars)

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The other day, I was in my dad's kitchen making a snack and singing an N*SYNC song completely out of key (hey, party like its 1997.) The only witness to my crime was my 7-year-old sister who was playing a computer game nearby, so I didn't care, and I "sang" to my heart's content. After bearing what she could, she stopped, looked up, and asked me what I was doing. I asked her (without thinking,) "What? You don't know who Justin Timberlake is??" Immediately recognizing her reaction, I quickly followed up with "The Justin Bieber I had when I was your age." No more words were spoken; she understood. I picked up my snack, turned around, and swag-walked out with my head held high, like I just addressed the press Obama-style, after announcing that Bin Laden was no longer an issue.

Anyone that knows me well knows I truly believe that other than Jesus and my dad, there are very few men that can do no wrong, and JT is one of them. (Amen) Let's admit it -- not only does he have the looks, but he has the humor, the girl (omg,) and the voice. 15 years after I was singing "Tearin Up my Heart" with my friends in the parent-pick up line at my elementary school, the man is still making hits. Part 2 of "The 20-20 Experience" is due to be released tomorrow (Monday,) but some music blogs made my life complete and got a hold of it early. Therefore, it goes without saying that after being "enlightened" this past Friday, I spent all day at work with my headphones in, listening to the album (<---that was a link, thank me later) and cranking out deliverables. Trust me -- nothing could get me down. The album in my opinion was fantastic -- again, no wrong.

Justin Timberlake has very little to do with pumpkin in my mind -- but speaking of "Amnesia" (my favorite track on this album,) I had run across a picture of "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars" when I searched for "pumpkin" on Pinterest (hey, cut a girl some slack, its officially fall.) I was super excited to try them out with what I had stocked in my kitchen. While baking, I was tuned into a certain album (cough, cough) hoping the perfection would fall from my speakers, through my apartment air and into the pan -- and sure enough, no wrong was done.

Trying out a new format this time, so here it is in PICTURES:

For this recipe, you'll need 1 twelve oz package of chocolate chips (I used half of a bag of mini chips that I had left over from a previous recipe -- use less like I did if you don't like too much chocolate!), 1 egg, 1 cup (or two sticks) of butter (leave it out for an hour or so, so its room temp when you're ready to bake), 1 cup of pumpkin puree (its canned and available everywhere these days!), 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice (on the spice aisle!), 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (while nothing beats the real thing, imitation vanilla will still make a yummy end result), 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon of salt (a canister of sea salt from Trader Joe's costs like $1.50 and has lasted me for a year!), and 1 1/4 cups of sugar.

Line a 13x9 oven pan (typical rectangular brownie size pan) with foil -- or my personal favorite -- parchment paper. It's right next to foil in the supermarket. Line the pan so there's extra foil/paper on the sides -- that way the bars won't stick to the pan :)

In a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

In a bigger bowl, add the butter and sugar. I combined white sugar and granulated brown sugar. Maybe I'm superstitious, but I've been halving brown and white for years -- I think they blend well together and intensify flavor -- so after combining, I only used about 1/4cup less than the recipe calls for. But that's just my opinion :)

With an electric mixer, "cream" the butter and sugar.

Should look like this afterwards.

Add the egg and vanilla.

Mix together, then get a spatula.

Wipe down the sides. You want to do this to make sure everything is mixing evenly!

Next, add in the pumpkin.

Yes, the glorious pumpkin.

Mix together. It should look a little curdled.

Next, mix in a little bit of the flour mixture. Repeat until all of the flour mixture is mixed into the pumpkin bowl. (If you add in all of the flour at once then try mixing, the flour will fly into the air/the walls of your kitchen-- so much fun to clean up... not.)

When the flour mixture is completely incorporated into the pumpkin mixture, it'll look like this.

Next, add the chocolate chips. Fold them in instead of stirring them, so you keep the fluffiness of the batter in tact. (Folding is merely dragging a spatula down the center of a bowl, then scooping up what's on the left then flipping it over into the center. Then you rotate the bowl a little and repeat. That was my best attempt at explaining. If you want to see a Youtube video of how to do this, click here.)