At long last! Modified Pumpkin Squares!

Here's the old pumpkin squares recipe...  Below is the new one! The first time I made the bars, with the old recipe, I used too few dates. I didn't have medjool dates. The bars with too few dates were just okay.

I used more dates the second time, but the bars still didn't taste as I expected they'd taste. They were good, but I wanted something a little more. I figured I still wasn't using enough dates so I did a google search and found that 10 medjool dates are supposed to have 660 calories and 180 carbohydrates.  Wow. That's a lot of sugar. I only used about 1/2 that amount in the dates in my second attempt (about 350 calories worth of dates). I guess it's no wonder that the pumpkin squares were still a little flat.

(The sites where I read about medjool dates raved about them, so maybe the medjool date makes a huge difference, but wow... 660 calories and 180 carbs. I really like eating pumpkin squares and if I eat 1/4 of the pan in one sitting, um, that's a lot of sugar--even if it's date sugar. Not that I'd ever eat 1/4 of a pan in one sitting. No sir. Moving on.)



 
 The calories in one medjool date X 10 for the old recipe...
 

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I thought about the recipe and realized that I really like the taste of maple syrup, and that, most likely, if I used it, instead of dates, I'd be able to use less (so less sugar) and still get the taste I like. I decided to go with 1/3 of a cup (let's just round to 6 tablespoons). That's 314 calories and 80 carbs. Still a lot of sugar, but 1/2 as much as what the dates were contributing.

I also wanted to add my dark chocolate chips! I also wanted a teeny bit of fat in the mix so I added a little flax. Here's what I came up with:

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup water
1.5 cups oat flour (use rolled oats grind your own if you have a blender)
1-2 tablespoons flax
1 15-oz. can cooked pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon
.5 - 1 teaspoon nutmeg
.5- 1 teaspoon of allspice
1/4 teaspoon of cloves if you want

I made it and put it in my little silicone muffin cups. Perfect--12 servings for me! You can still eat 1/4 of the pan, but it's 3 muffins worth and after 2 muffins, I can usually stop.

I'm pleased that I reduced the sugar content by 1/2 and I really like the flavor. Someday, I have to do a post on sweetners, but for now, read about maple syrup here.  Maple syrup is my favorite!

(I did add a little fat with the flax and chocolate chips, but apparently I took some out when I stopped using the dates 'cause As I calculated it, the original recipe had 4 grams of fat and 3 grams of saturated fat.)

Note, I cooked the muffins at 350 for 25-30 minutes. They come out of the oven very, um, gooey, in fact, almost undercooked. They firm up as they cool--I stick mine in the refrigerator.