Yesterday when I was deciding what sweet treat to bake to send with Hondo to school, I hit a snag and couldn't decide what to make so I made two things. I went the pumpkin route because its October and I'm very excited and because little ones really seem to like pumpkin (as do lots of big ones too).

I made these fantastic Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies and then I made these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip ones that I gussied up with pumpkin as well. Its a variation of my favorite Oatmeal Raisin recipes from Sally's Baking Addiction - replace some egg with pumpkin, brown sugar and the right spices, replace raisins with chocolate chips and off we go!

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Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yields 2.5 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
7 generous tbs. of pumpkin puree
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 generous tbs. molasses
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 generous cup milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in the pumpkin, vanilla, and molasses until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. A little at a time, beat the dry ingredients into the wet until combined.

Stir in the oats until evenly distributed. Fold in the chocolate chips using a spatula, the dough will be thick and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Roll generous tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place an inch and a half apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on desired chewiness. You can take them out as soon as they begin to brown at the edges and just as the centers have set, or you can wait until the tops are golden. Removing them earlier will yield a chewier cookie, but you will have to wait until completely cooled to remove from the cookie sheet.

October is here! Rejoice, it is officially autumn, the weather might actually start cooling off and the leaves might start falling! Break out your sweaters, pour a hot cup of anything and feel that breeze.

Oh and enjoy the pumpkins! Pumpkins everywhere. They are pretty too look at a delicious to eat. I love making things with pumpkin. Its a nice earthy flavor, lots of nutrients to offer (not pumpkin spice, actual pumpkin), smells great and adds a nice layer of texture you can't quite replicate with another ingredient.

A while back I learned that because of the moisture in pumpkin puree, you can almost always replace eggs in a baking recipe with pumpkin (about 3 tbs per average sized egg). So each fall I try it out on some new things.

This week was Hondo's birthday and gave me a great excuse to make some new pumpkin creations. I wanted to send him to school with some special treats but having been a teacher for little ones his age, I didn't want to send anything covered in frosting and teeming with sugar. Neither is a recipe for a happy class of toddlers and their teachers.

Thankfully, most kids love pumpkin too so I thought this was a great opportunity. For the longest time, Townes though pumpkin muffins were cake - no frosting needed. The same has been true with Hondo.

I couldn't decide what to make to I tried out two new things: Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Blondies with a Cream Cheese Swirl.

The recipe I used for these Blondies is my great-grandmother Pauline Crocker's. She made her blondies with chocolate chips in them and always had a batch in the pantry waiting for her grandkids (my mom). I replaced some of the eggs with pumpkin, but not all of them because I didn't want them to be fluffy and cakey, but dense like a fudge brownie, they ended up somewhere in between. I also added some cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and obviously, the cream cheese swirl.

They didn't take long at all to whip up and came out lovely. I still want to concoct a denser, fudgier type pumpkin bar, but haven't nailed it yet - stay tuned though, I'm sure I'll crack it this fall!

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies

Fills a 9 x 12 baking pan

For the Pumpkin Bar:

2/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cup (1 lb. pkg) of dark brown sugar
3 eggs
7.5 oz (half of a 15 oz. can) of pumpkin puree
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

For the Cream Cheese Swirl:

8 oz. bar of cream cheese, softened to room temp.
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9 x 12 baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until combined.

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat in one egg at a time, until just combined - do not over mix. Next, stir in the pumpkin puree until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. Stir together and then mix the dry ingredients into the wet a little at a time until smooth. Set aside.

Make the cream cheese swirl. Using a hand mixer, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Pour two-thirds of the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan. Spread it evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Using a large spoon, drop large dollops of the cream cheese mixture on top of the pumpkin batter in the pan. Drop the remaining pumpkin batter among the cream cheese.

Then, using a butter knife, swirl the cream cheese and pumpkin batter together slowly. Don't worry if it doesn't look too pretty, when you cut them it always seems to work out.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan completely before cutting and serving. Enjoy!