It’s halfway through November and I thought for sure I’d have cooked my way through a patch’s worth of pumpkin by now, but alas, I’ve been through only a measly two cans this fall season. I have all sorts of pumpkin-centric recipes bookmarked — pumpkin garlic knots, pancakes, mac ‘n cheese — but life is getting in the way. I’ve barely had the chance to cook at all over the last few weeks, and I’m oh-so-sad. Sigh.

Fortunately, my not-so-secret obsession, Food Network, has fixed up just the thing to get me out of my food funk: Virtual Thanksgiving. In honor of the ultimate foodie holiday, Food Network has invited the entire food community to #pullupachair to The Communal Table today at noon EST. (Scroll down to view the whole menu. Bet you’re going to be stuffed!)

As I so often do for dinner parties, I’ve volunteered to do dessert: my very own cinnamon chip pumpkin blondies. (Fun fact: It’s taking me twice as long to write this blog post because I’m eating one of these right now — typing a sentence, taking a bite, typing a sentence taking a bite… It’s unproductive.)

I’ve seen pumpkin blondies with both chocolate and white chocolate chips, but I worried they would overpower the fantastic fall flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. I opted to use a bag of mini cinnamon chips I purchased from a local candy shop, and was pleased with the little pockets of spice bursting out of each bite.

Cinnamon chip pumpkin blondies
♦14 tbs. butter (1-3/4 sticks) of unsalted butter
♦1-1/4 c. brown sugar
♦2 c. all-purpose flour
♦1 tsp. baking soda
♦3/4 tsp. salt
♦1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
♦3/4 tsp. ginger
♦1/2 tsp. nutmeg
♦1/2 tsp. ground cloves
♦1 egg
♦1 tbs. vanilla extract
♦1 c. pumpkin puree
♦1-1/2 c. mini cinnamon chips
♦3 tbs. honey
♦2 tbs. caramel sauce (I used Hershey’s)

Cream butter and brown sugar in stand mixer. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Back in the mixer, drop vanilla and egg and beat well. Add pumpkin puree, and mix until well combined. On low, slowly add dry mix. Fold in cinnamon chips. To make removal and cutting easier, I would recommend placing a sheet of tinfoil inside a 9×13 baking dish (and coat with baking spray). Spread mixture evenly in dish. Drizzle honey, then caramel on top, and bake at 375 degrees for 38 minutes. Makes 24 bars.

Total time? 10 minutes prep, 40 minutes baking
Cost? $1.69 can of pumpkin puree, $2.99 mini cinnamon chips (not the best price, but worth it for the novelty!), additional costs if you don’t have ginger, cloves, etc. on hand.
Overall success relative to expectations? 9 out of 10. Pumpkin is back with a vengeance, my friends. Five minutes after these blondies hit the oven, I peeked my head in and was punched in the face by a metaphorical fist full of pumpkin spice. Eventually, my house smelled like a Yankee candle — a bargain, considering these are a fraction of the cost and won’t give you wax poisoning if you eat them. The blondies are incredibly moist and make a great group dessert (or breakfast, as I’ve done every day this week). The honey and caramel on top get a slight post-bake crisp to give you a textural variant, and the overall flavors are the epitome of autumn.