Pumpkin Crumble Save My Butt Bars

dessert I made after my huge zebra bundt fail. I was in a huge panic because I needed to make something quick, but I had used up all the vanilla. Do you know how hard it is to find a dessert that doesn't require vanilla? Luckily, our best bites' easy pumpkin crumble came to the rescue. Miraculously I had pumpkin, cake mix and condensed milk. I always have pumpkin on hand, but cake mix AND condensed milk? Those were just a fluke.

This was not a pretty dessert, like I had hoped the Zebra cake was going to be. At least the bars tasted good. They were sort of like a crustless pumpkin pie with a crumble topping. Om nom nom!

Even though these bars were good, I wound up taking over half a pan home. Why? People forgot to eat dessert! How do you forget to eat dessert? Isn't that like forgetting to go pee? Wait...I've done that before. Hmm. Guess I shouldn't be too hasty with my judgements eh?

I had the leftovers in the house for half a day. I thought the bars were so good I made a judgement call to send the leftovers to work with Mrblocko. This was after I cut myself a huge slice for second breakfast. I knew if I didn't get those bars out of the house I'd eat the whole pan while Blockette was at school.


Easy Pumpkin Crumble from Our Best Bites
1 boxed yellow or white cake mix
1-2 sticks butter (see notes in instructions)
1 16 oz can pumpkin*
2 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t ginger
1/8 t cloves
1/8 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1/3 C chopped pecans
1/2 t additional cinnamon for topping

*This makes a dessert about an inch thick or less. That’s because I like a high topping-to-pumpkin ratio. If you’d like it thicker, use a large can of pumpkin and double the rest of the filling ingredients (Eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices). Leave the rest of the recipe the same.

Preheat oven to 350. Place 2 C  cake mix in a bowl. Cut in 3 T chilled butter. Just use your fingers to crumble the butter until it’s in small crumbly pieces. Place mixture in a 9×13 baking dish and press flat with fingers. Mix pumpkin, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and spices until smooth. Pour on top of the cake mixture in the pan. Now take the rest of the dry cake mix and mix in 1/2 t cinnamon. Sprinkle it all over the top of the pumpkin mixture. Use a measuring cup so you have a rough measurement of how much you’re putting on. Here’s why: Cake mixes all have different amounts in them! Next sprinkle on the chopped pecans. You’ll have 3 distinct layers now: Here’s the trick: For every 1 C of cake mix you sprinkled on top, you’ll need 3 T of melted butter. Drizzle it right on top. Bake 350F oven for about 40 min or so. A knife should come out without globs of pumpkin on it and the topping should be nice and golden.