Pumpkin-Pecan Blondies

Wednesdays are normally my day off from work and I always spend the entire day enjoying a good cleaning and organizing of the house from top to bottom, which is what I did yesterday. Because I am a medical transcriptionist, I wait for my doctors to dictate and send me the workload. Thursday mornings I usually have a ton of work to do before picking my daughter up from school; however, I found myself with zero work assigned to me. The house is clean, my daughter is at school and I have no work. What to do on a cold, rainy day with hours of free time? BAKE, of course! I was flipping through Mixing Bowl Magazine and saw Pumpkin Blondies that I instantly knew I had to try. This was turning out to be a very relaxing, quiet, me-time morning! I have neither made nor have I tasted a blondie in my life. It wasn't until last year that I had even heard of such a thing and now I see them all over the place. Blondies are a brown sugar based dessert bar resembling the traditional chocolate brownie. They are sometimes referred to as blondie brownies, although are based from brown sugar, unlike brownies made with cocoa. Blondies have been on my to-cook list for quite some time now, so I got to cross that one off my list! It is a good recipe; however, I did make a few changes to it, i.e., less white baking chips, less cloves, more vanilla and the addition of pecans. These are sweet and pumpkin-y and very good. I would say, however, that they are more cake-like than brownie-like but they are still yummy!

P.S. Sorry about the low-quality picture. They had just completely cooled by the time my daughter got home from school. She tore into them and I had very little time to arrange and take a picture of them. lol

Ingredients:

• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 c butter, softened
  
• 1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 c canned pumpkin
• 1/2 c white baking chips
• 1/2 c chopped pecans
• 1/2 c coconut

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9-inch baking pan with foil and grease the foil.
  
• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; set aside.
  
• Beat the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid) on medium to high speed, until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.
  
• Add pumpkin and beat on low, until combined.
  
• Beat in flour mixture, one cup at a time. Stir in baking chips, pecans and coconut.
  
• Spread the batter into the prepared baking dish.
  
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (35 minutes exactly in my oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Cool completely in the pan.
• Take it out of the pan by lifting up the foil on both sides. Cut into bars.

• Enjoy!