Pumpkin S’mores Blondies

Hannah here, writing to you from a deep deep hole of sports depression.

As you know from CNN “breaking news” updates, Kate’s last post, and the Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial that aired in error yesterday encouraging me to go buy Rangers World Series Champions t-shirts…this has not been the easiest weekend for Texas Rangers fans.

Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling slightly better about life.  It was nice outside.  I had a coupon for a free latte at Einstein’s.  A new season of Next Iron Chef started yesterday.

Then, the already depressing sports weekend took a turn for the worse.  Let’s just say…it was not the weekend to be in the intersection of a Rangers fans and Saints fans venn diagram.

Yeah.  Epic.

So I made blondies, as is only natural in the midst of despair.  Don’t be skeptical of these flavor combos, like I’m now skeptical of the abilities of the New Orleans defense.   Pumpkin + marshmallow = duh.  Pumpkin + graham crackers = duh.  Pumpkin + chocolate = slightly suspicious at first, but can all of these people be wrong?

I can’t really find it in me to wax too poetic about these Pumpkin S’mores Blondies, but I will say this: eating them makes me possibly consider even slightly a little bit watching sports again.

Just not sure if I’m ready to put myself out there again.

Surely these blondies will help me get there.

(Let’s be real.  Next Saturday will most likely find me here, on my couch, watching LSU v Alabama…and next Sunday I’ll be in my Brees jersey.)

Makes one 9×13 inch pan, 24-36 blondies

Ingredients:
1 cup (= 2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
about half a bag of miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 sleeves of graham crackers, crushed in a food processor to make about 1 1/2 cups crumbs
3/4 cup (= 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF with a rack in the middle position.  Lightly grease a 13×9-inch pan (preferably glass) and set it aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and both sugars with a rubber spatula until combined.  Stir in the pumpkin, then the egg and vanilla until completely combined.  Add the dry ingredients, stirring gently until incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, 1 1/2 sticks butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and salt with a fork or with your fingers until coarse crumbs are formed.  (It will probs feel a little wetter than normal crumb mixture.)
5. Transfer the blondie batter to the prepared pan, smoothing the top.  Evenly sprinkle the graham cracker crumb mixture over the top of the blondies.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle comes out with a few crumbs on it (you want it to be slightly sticky, no one likes overbaked blondies).
6. Immediately sprinkle the marshmallows (enough to cover the surface of the blondies…may be slightly more than half a bag) over the blondies and return it to the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, until the marshmallows are melted.  Let the blondies cool on a wire rack until completely cool.  It’s much easier to slice the blondies if you chill them well in the refrigerator first…otherwise the gooey marshmallow just kind of drags all over the place.  Slice with a sharp thin knife and serve at room temperature.  Blondies will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 4 days.

Recipe for blondies adapted from Martha Stewart and my brains

Happy Halloween everyone!  Thanks for reading, happy baking!