Pumpkin Pie Crumb Bars

Couple weeks ago I made a pumpkin pie bread and added some ground oats into the batter. The taste was so good, there was something different about that dessert. And then I realised that I found a new favourite combination - pumpkin and oatmeal. These two ingredients taste amazing together and I immediately started thinking of other desserts where pumpkin and oats could be used. As I wanted to make pumpkin crumb bars for a long time, I decided to make the crust out of oats. And voila, the experiment turned out great! These bars came out delicious. An oatmeal crust, a soft and creamy pumpkin filling and sweet crunchy crumbs drizzled with some white chocolate. Oh, and as usually, I added just a small amount of fats and white flour. So these are healthy, too!

Crust:

25g butter, melted
2 tbsp honey, melted
125g ground oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg yolk
25g all purpose flour

Filling:

2 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I used homemade)
60g unrefined light brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla sugar
100g sour cream
25g all purpose flour


Crumb topping:

25g butter, cold
1 tsp cinnamon
40g flour
40g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

White Chocolete, to drizzle (optional)

Preheat oven to 180C.

Make the crust:
1) In a medium bowl, combine together the oat flour, all-purpose flour, salt and cinnamon. Add egg yolk. Add butter and honey and and mix until well combined. Press the mixture into a 20x20cm baking dish. Set aside.

Make the filling:
2) In a large bowl, beat egg and egg white. Add light brown sugar, vanilla sugar, sour cream and beat until very well combined. Add pumpkin puree and mix. Finally, add flour and mix just until combined. Spread the mixture over the crust and set aside.

Make the crumb topping:
3) In a small bowl, combine together cinnamon, flour, brown sugar and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and throw into flour mixture. Using your hands, knead the butter into the mixture so all the sugar/flour is incorporated into butter. Sprinkle the crumbs onto the pumpkin filling.

4) Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

5) Let cool completely on a wire rack and transfer to the fridge. Refrigerate overnight and cut into squares. 

Recipe by collecting memories