Eating Up

Fall is here (yay!), and the change of season has brought a change of scenery, temperature and food. If the (yay!) didn’t clue you in to what my season is, let me tell you that it is most definitely fall. November, October and December rank—in that order—as my favorite months of the year.

I can’t think of fall without thinking of pumpkins, and apparently I’m not the only one. Businesses have picked up on the fact few can resist a pumpkin-flavored treat and are offering seasonal specials for the next few months. Want pumpkin coffee? A pumpkin bagel? Pumpkin spice froyo? Guys, I think pumpkin is being exploited.

Do I care? A little. Am I an enabler?

Heck, yes.

The first sweet treat for the blog had to be from my literal sister(’s) site. These are her brain child. I take no responsibility in this particular exploitation of pumpkin. Except for the fact that I made the recipe, ate the product of the recipe and then shared the recipe with you. Let me continue.

Get these ingredients.

Mix them together, and create this.

Need more direction? Here are the actual directions:

Base mixture:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup Sucanat

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Chocolate mixture:

6 ounces grain sweetened chocolate chips

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Pumpkin mixture:

1 1/4 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon ginger

Preheat: Oven at 350*F.

Pan: Spray an 11×7-inch pan with cooking spray and set aside. (I didn’t have this, but I did have a round cake pan…which is why my brownies are in the shape of pie slices.)

Mix: For the base mixture, mix together whole wheat pastry flour and salt in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together Sucanat, eggs and vanilla until well-combined.  Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until blended.  Divide this mixture into two bowls. For chocolate mixture, melt chocolate chips and oil in a bowl.  Stir into one half of the base mixture. For pumpkin mixture, combine pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a bowl.  Stir into other half of base mixture.  Spread chocolate batter evenly into prepared pan.  Top with pumpkin batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Eat up.