Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

I love the taste of chocolate and pumpkin together, so when I saw this Martha Stewart recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip squares, I had to bake it. I was reluctant to do so, with 2 sticks of butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar! Wow! If you read through the comments on the recipe page there are a few substitutions to use to make it a tiny bit healthier, for example, the addition of applesauce to replace some of the butter.

Anyway, some things to note… I did not find pumpkin pie spice, so I used the recommended spice mix on the recipe page. However I reduced the allspice to 1/4 teaspoon, as I would have done also for the cloves if I had had any. In the comments section of the recipe page a few people also note that the addition of 12 ounces of chocolate chips was too much. I could see why, so I only added a little less than 3/4 of a 12 ounce bag to the batter.

To get some nice chocolate chips on top of the cake/brownie/blondie/whatever, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of the batter right after you have spread it out in the pan. Otherwise all the chips will be hidden in the batter after baking.

These babies are a gooey mess of pumpkin and chocolate! So tasty, so unhealthy, so gooey! They are definitely best cut into small squares because a big square is so rich it is likely to make your belly hurt! And of course these need to be chased down with a tall glass of cold fat free milk!