A Thanksgiving Dessert Recipe That's Gluten-free and Dairy-free: Pumpkin Bars!

This is actually a re-post, because my family loves my pumpkin bars as much as (if not more than) my pumpkin pie. And since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I figured it's time to post our favorite Thanksgiving GF and DF dessert... Pumpkin bars!

Ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup pumpkin
½ cup vegetable oil
1/6 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (I used super fluffy GF flour mix—see recipe in the margin)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon each: ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon

Gluten-Free Bar Directions:
Beat egg and add other wet ingredients and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Bake at 350 F (175 degrees C) in a glass 9” x 13” pan about 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Bars will be slightly browned, very thin, and moist. Let cool before frosting. (If you're not worried about dairy, you can use Betty Crocker's gluten-free vanilla frosting. It says "gluten-free" on the back of the package.)

Special Tip:

I have made these with canned pumpkin, and they turned out just fine. But honestly, the very best ones we've ever made, were made with our own home-grown pumpkins (not the jack-o-lantern kind, but the sweeter garden pumpkins). To make your own pumpkin mush, just cut the pumpkins in half, clean out all the stringy stuff and seeds, and bake upside down (skin up) in a casserole dish or on a cookie sheet. You'll know they're done baking when they turn soft, just like with any other baked squash. You scrape out their meat, drain off some of the moisture, make sure you get all the stringy-strings out of the pulp, and measure it out.