Pumpkin Pie Bars
Pumpkin pie with a shortcut! These delicious pumpkin custard pie bars have a layer of buttery shortbread on the bottom and fluffy sponge-like pumpkin custard pie filling on top. Finish it off with whipped cream and cinnamon to make the bars tasty and beautiful.
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust:
- 12 tablespoons butter softened
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour *see note
Pumpkin Custard Filling:
- 2 cups milk (heated)
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour rounded
- 4 large eggs separated
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice *see recipe below
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350:
- Crust: Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and well combined, then mix in vanilla. Add flour and mix until loose but wet crumbs remain. Press into the bottom of a greased 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden and set.
- Filling: Mix pumpkin puree with sugars, flour, egg yolks (reserve egg whites for later) and spices until smooth.
- Heat 2 cups milk until steaming, but not boiling hot. The milk should be hot to touch without simmering or boiling. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then whisk hot milk into the pumpkin mixture and fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.
- Pour the pumpkin mixture over the par-baked shortbread crust, then return the bars to the oven to bake for around 30 minutes or until the filling is set and no longer jiggles in the center.
- Allow the bars to cool completely (can refrigerate for several hours to overnight) before cutting. Serve with whipped topping and extra cinnamon if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
If the crust feels too wet to spread, you can add an additional tablespoon or more of flour.
You can use parchment paper to line the baking dish, but if the parchment paper comes up the sides of the baking dish it can cause the pumpkin bars to be misshapen at the sides.
Be sure to bake the shortbread until set because the filling is pretty wet and can cause the shortbread to have a soft texture if underbaked. If you prefer a soft shortbread bottom, feel free to bake it for less time (around 10 minutes). Some pumpkin filling will soak into the shortbread either way.
Additional notes and step by step photos below.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!