Bar Exam Bars! Pumpkin Streusel, to be exact.

A friend and co-worker of mine just found out she passed the bar exam, so I made these yummy Pumpkin Streusel bars and brought them to work.  They were a hit!

Recipe courtesy of: Karin at Allrecipes.com

Original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pie-Bars/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups pumpkin pie filling
• 2/3 cup milk  (I used evaporated milk, as all of the reviewers suggested this.)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter    

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan.
2. Pour one cup of yellow cake mix into a medium size mixing bowl; set aside.
3. Combine remaining cake mix, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg; mix well. Press into the baking pan.
4. Combine pumpkin pie filling, 2 eggs and milk in a medium size mixing bowl; mix until smooth. Pour evenly over the crust in the 9×13 inch pan.
5. Pour the sugar and cinnamon into the mixing bowl containing the 1 cup of yellow cake mix. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over the pumpkin filling.
6. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the bars come out clean. Let cool before cutting.

Definitely be sure to substitute evaporated milk for regular milk.  Other than that, I would also recommend turning down the heat of your oven (if you’re using anything besides a glass pan, at least).  The bottoms of mine got a little darker than I would have liked, and I baked them for 40 minutes at 340, in a metal pan (though not very dark metal).

These aren’t “light” or “healthy”, which made them perfect for a treat to bring into work.  That way I’m not tempted to eat them all!

Honestly, the idea of pumpkin streusel sounded odd to me…but someone made something like this recently, and I thought they were delicious.  It’s worth trying out, they were gone in no time and a few co-workers said they went back to get a second one!