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Brûléed Pumpkin Pie Bars: Because We’re Extra
Sure, you can make a classic pumpkin pie for the holidays and everyone will enjoy it – but if you walk into a holiday party with a plate of these Brûléed Pumpkin Pie Bars with a homemade Brown Butter Graham Cracker base, you’ll walk out with an empty plate and people will be raving about it indefinitely. Personally, I prefer the latter – who doesn’t love being a little extra during the holidays?
How I Came Up With This Recipe
A year of my life hasn’t gone by where my sister and I didn’t make at least two pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving – it’s been a longstanding tradition in our house that I have loved every minute of. I was apprehensive at first to alter that tradition, but when I heard about Broma Bakery’s Brûléed Pumpkin Pie, and I couldn’t resist the concept. I personally prefer a graham cracker crust over regular pie crust, and I’m also not a huge fan of pies because I like treats that I can hold on to like brownies and cookies. So, I combined my two favorite things – graham cracker crusts and handheld desserts, with one of my favorite holiday baking traditions, and my Brûléed Pumpkin Pie Bars were born.
Creme Brûlée in itself is intimidating, I’ll be the first to admit that I have always thought of it as a difficult dessert that couldn’t be conquered by the home chef. After working as a server in an Italian restaurant for five years and making hundreds of Creme Brûlées, I got over my fear of torching sugar and haven’t looked back since (it really is easier than you think!).
How to Brûlée: Conquering the Kitchen Torch
This recipe in itself is simple to make – it does have a few different steps, but overall it’s straightforward. The hardest part about this recipe is torching the top, which is actually fairly simple once you get the hang of it! You’ll want to make sure you have a trusty kitchen torch and butane refill (butane usually doesn’t come with the torch, but you can pick a refill up at Home Depot or order it from Amazon!). You’ll also need regular sugar. I don’t love using granulated sugar in my recipes, but for this it’s a must. (I attempted to brûlée Monk Fruit sweetener and it didn’t harden so it was a gooey mess – trust me, sugar is best here).
Once you have the tools and ingredients you need, and your bars are baked and cooled, all you’ll do is evenly sprinkle your bars with sugar and then torch the top of them. It will first look like the sugar is sweating and turning into water, then it will start to become golden and deliciously fragrant. At this point, you’ll want to pause and let it set. If there are still visible sugar spots you can revisit those with your torch, but you want to take your time so that you don’t burn the sugar. Once torched to golden perfection, the sugar will harden, creating that beautifully sweet brûléed top the we all know and love!
Why I Love This Recipe From a Health-Perspective
I am very intentional with my ingredients, I like to develop recipes that are both delicious and that will work for me by offering extra nutritional benefits to my body. While there is granulated sugar on top of these bars, the pumpkin filling actually doesn’t contain any refined sugars. Instead, I combine 100% pure organic maple syrup and coconut sugar to give this treat its sweetness. I prefer this combination because it’s more of a subtle sweetness than straightforward sugar.
This recipe technically is not dairy-free because it contains butter in the graham cracker base and evaporated milk in the pumpkin pie filling, but if you wanted to make it dairy-free you could alternatively use coconut oil and almond milk as 1:1 substitutes.
Earlier this year, I discovered that my body produces antibodies that attack my thyroid. My doctor highly recommended that I stick to an anti-inflammatory diet because of the correlation between thyroid function and inflammation. I create most recipes, including these Brûléed Pumpkin Pie Bars, with anti-inflammatory properties in mind. I’ve noticed that eating as clean as possible has made me feel better, heal faster, and help with my overall cognitive function. I am by no means a doctor or registered dietician, but I did want to share my personal “why” for creating recipes like this one because eating this way really has positively impacted my health, and I figured maybe it could help others, too.
Ingredients:
- Graham Crackers (I recommend the cinnamon graham crackers from Trader Joe’s
- Butter
- Coconut Sugar
- Maple Syrup
- Pumpkin Puree
- Evaporated Milk OR Almond Milk
- Eggs
- Cinnamon
- Ground Ginger
- Ground Nutmeg
- Ground Cloves
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
Brown Your Butter: Start by adding your butter to a pan over medium heat and cooking it until browned – you’ll want to stay at your stovetop for this and stir constantly until it starts to bubble and emit a nutty aroma. Once this happens, remove it immediately from the heat, transfer it to a glass bowl, and allow for it to cool.
Make Your Graham Cracker Crust: While your brown butter cools, add your graham crackers to a food processors and pulse until you have a sandy texture and there are no graham cracker clumps in-tact. Add your graham cracker crumbs and brown butter to a bowl and mix until combined, then transfer them to a non-stick or parchment paper-lined pan and bake for 15-20 minutes until partially cooked through.
Make Your Pumpkin Pie Filling: Combine all of your remaining pumpkin pie filling ingredients (minus the granulated sugar which will be used for the brûléed top) in a large bowl and mix until you have a creamy liquid consistency.
Assemble Your Pumpkin Bars and Bake: Once removed from the oven, poke little holes into your graham cracker crust using a fork. Pour your pumpkin pie filling over the graham cracker crust, then place back into the oven to bake for 40-50 minutes. Test it for doneness by poking a toothpick into the center – if it comes out clean, it’s ready!
Brûlée Your Pumpkin Bars: Once your pumpkin pie sheet is cool, cut your bars into the serving size you prefer. Sprinkle the top of each bar with an even layer of granulated sugar – I would go 2-3 bars at a time because the sugar may absorb into the pumpkin filling if it sits too long. Using your kitchen torch, torch the sugar top on each bar until it turns golden brown and emits a sweet aroma. Allow each bar to cool and harden.
Serve with optional whipped cream or a light dusting of powdered sugar and enjoy!
Tools:
- Kitchen Torch
- Butane Refill (for torch)
- 9″x13″ Baking Dish
Full Recipe:
Print
Brûléed Pumpkin Pie Bars
- Yield: 12 square bars 1x
Ingredients
For the Graham Cracker Base:
- 4 cups Graham Crackers (I recommend the cinnamon graham crackers from Trader Joe’s
- 1 c butter
For Pumpkin Pie Filling:
- 15 oz pumpkin puree
- 12 oz evaporated milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 c coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp 100% pure organic maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
- Brown Your Butter: Start by adding your butter to a pan over medium heat and cooking it until browned – you’ll want to stay at your stovetop for this and stir constantly until it starts to bubble and emit a nutty aroma. Once this happens, remove it immediately from the heat, transfer it to a glass bowl, and allow for it to cool.
- Make Your Graham Cracker Crust: While your brown butter cools, add your graham crackers to a food processors and pulse until you have a sandy texture and there are no graham cracker clumps in-tact. Add your graham cracker crumbs and brown butter to a bowl and mix until combined, then transfer them to a non-stick or parchment paper-lined pan and bake for 15-20 minutes until partially cooked through.
- Make Your Pumpkin Pie Filling: Combine all of your remaining pumpkin pie filling ingredients (minus the granulated sugar which will be used for the brûléed top) in a large bowl and mix until you have a creamy liquid consistency.
- Assemble Your Pumpkin Bars and Bake: Once removed from the oven, poke little holes into your graham cracker crust using a fork. Pour your pumpkin pie filling over the graham cracker crust, then place back into the oven to bake for 40-50 minutes. Test it for doneness by poking a toothpick into the center – if it comes out clean, it’s ready!
- Brûlée Your Pumpkin Bars: Once your pumpkin pie sheet is cool, cut your bars into the serving size you prefer. Sprinkle the top of each bar with an even layer of granulated sugar – I would go 2-3 bars at a time because the sugar may absorb into the pumpkin filling if it sits too long. Using your kitchen torch, torch the sugar top on each bar until it turns golden brown and emits a sweet aroma. Allow each bar to cool and harden.
Serve with optional whipped cream or a light dusting of powdered sugar and enjoy!
For more recipes like this one, follow me on social media at @dinneratallis!