Dressed to Impress; or, Maple Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake Bars

Every time I tell people about these, I grow a little more weary of saying the name. But pumpkin bars isn't descriptive enough, pumpkin cheesecake bars is closer (but doesn't tell the whole story). Maple pumpkin cheesecake bars is a mouthful, and might be enough given that people can typically SEE the pecans on top, but once you're most of the way there, you might as well just lay it all out for them. On with the baking (this time, with pictures!)

Maple Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake Bars

For the crust, you'll need:

9 ounces ginger snaps

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons melted butter

For the filling, you'll need:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin purée

2 eggs

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping, you'll need:

1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

4 ounces chopped pecans

1/4 to 1/3 cup light brown sugar

You'll notice there's like twice as much stuff here as you would use. I wanted to bring a batch to work and keep one for home. Don't judge me.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Lay parchment down in a 9x13 pan. 

If you're like me, you greased the pans and then realized there's an easier way, because you're a dummy.

 In a food processor, pulse the ginger snaps until they start to come apart. Add the sugar and continue to process until you have uniform crumbs. Add the butter and pulse until it looks uniformly wet and clumpy.

If you're like me, you take pictures at somewhat frivolous times.

Spread the crust out in the bottom of the pan and press down until it's more or less even across the whole thing. Bake that sucker for 8 minutes.

See what I mean?

While the crust bakes a bit, cream together your cream cheese and sugar. Add the pumpkin and mix it just until it's fully incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Pour in your can of evaporated milk, maple syrup and vanilla, and beat well until it's all creamy. Stir in your spicing and salt.

If you're like me, you get about halfway through making the filling, remember you were photojournaling this, take a single picture, then completely forget about it again.

Pour that whole mess on top of your (hopefully completed by now) crust and stick 'er in the oven. Let it bake for about 25 minutes.

If you're like me, you forget to turn the flash on your camera phone on because you figure "the oven light's got this."

While that's going on, it's time to candy your pecans for the topping. Get your oil hot in a frying pan and set your brown sugar aside in a wide, shallow bowl. Once the oil is nice and hot (i.e., it looks ripply), throw your pecans in and stir them around for a bit.

Oh yeah. You really captured the essence of those pecans, buddy.

Once the pecans are nicely coated in hot oil, fish them out of said oil and throw them on your brown sugar. Gently mix it all around (they're hot, dummy!) until there's some brown sugar on your pecans. After the initial 25 minutes of baking, sprinkle those on top of your pan of cheesecake bars.

I was a little too skimpy with the pecans, I think. You should probably put more on there. Everyone loves pecans.

Bake for another 5-10 minutes, checking the consistency by shaking the pan a little (the center should just barely jiggle when they're done). Pull them from the oven and set them on a wire rack to cool. Once they've cooled completely, you can just grab the excess parchment from the ends and pull to make the whole mess pop right out.

See? Way easier than trying to cut the squares out of the pan. Should have thought of that first, wiseass.

Cut it up into squares and serve just like that! These would also be good with some whipped cream (or whipped créme fraîche, or maybe even some vanilla mascarpone mousse?).

If you're like me, you don't know how to frame photos.

You'll notice in the picture above that I actually burnt the crust on the one batch. I had one metal pan and one glass, which obviously affected the baking times, but I did not account for that appropriately. For the record, the one in the glass pan came out much better (and that's the one I brought to work, because I'd rather embarrass myself in front of my family than my coworkers). You'll also notice that for all of my blustering, I didn't even think far ahead enough to actually have some kind of topping for these things. Good one, jerk. Anyway, hope you enjoy!