Toasted Marshmallow Pumpkin Bars

Halloween in the early 80’s. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. My mind can never decide if it goes there to recall fun Halloween memories or to relive unresolved Halloween trauma. More than likely, it’s a little of both. Let’s talk about the costumes of the early 1980’s.

For reasons I will never understand, someone back then thought it would be a good idea to mass-produce every superhero, cartoon character, and kids TV personality in plastic form. Apparently, parents were fully on board, since I remember all of my friends parading around in plastic costumes too. I still remember the square cardboard box they were neatly folded into. It had a clear window on top, proudly displaying a mask with the most hideous forms of Barbie, GI Joe, and Strawberry Shortcake you’ve ever seen.

The costumes all had the same very distinct chemical smell that we happily wore while sweating profusely during our candy collecting. Plastic isn’t exactly the most breathable material and South Florida is still in the high 80’s this time of year. If that wasn’t bad enough, I was also painted white. That made me look exactly like Snoopy. The resemblance is uncanny, I know. As bad as my costume was, though, my brother as Superman and my cousin as Wonder Woman were 100 times worse…more like Super”creepy”man.

The silver lining to this costume calamity was that we lived in a high rise apartment building in downtown Miami at the time. The door-to-door candy gathering was very efficient. We stopped on every floor, each having around  12 apartments. If the building was 20 stories, that’s well over 200 different doors to knock on. We didn’t bother with the cute pumpkin-shaped buckets. The task required Hefty bags. We each had our own. They were so heavy by the end of the night that we had to drag them on the floor behind us to get them home.

As it turns out, a decent Halloween costume wasn’t the only thing I was deprived of as a child. I wasn’t introduced to pumpkin until well into my college years. I try to rationalize that by saying that pumpkin is just not a traditional Hispanic ingredient, at least not in Cuban or Nicaraguan cultures. It’s the truth though, and I think the only exception to that is the Mexican calabaza, which has grown there for thousands of years.

It turns out, I love anything with pumpkin, as do my three daughters and my husband. So, this time of year when the weather starts to change from 90 degrees to 85, pumpkin treats call my name…and I always answer. This time, by making these amazing toasted marshmallow pumpkin bars. This recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s award-winning book, Dorie’s Cookies. In the book, she makes these with sweet potato puree and calls them Sweet Potato Pie Bars, but mentions that pumpkin can be substituted just as well.

The buttery and tender vanilla cookie crust comes together quickly using a food processor, but you could use a pastry cutter too. The crust is blind-baked using dried beans or pie weights. I use these. The pumpkin filling ingredients are then mixed together using a food processor (no need to wash it after making the crust) or a mixer. It is poured into the crust and baked for a total of about 25-30  minutes.

The marshmallow topping is optional, but elevates these to another level. In the book, store-bought marshmallows are used, which is easy and still tasty. Here, I opted for a homemade marshmallow cream, which if you have an extra 20 minutes and a candy thermometer, is so worth it. If you want to go that route, I suggest making the marshmallow cream the day before. It keeps very well covered at room temperature. Either way, I am including recipes for making these with both the homemade marshmallow cream or store-bought marshmallows.

These toasted marshmallow pumpkin bars are a perfect Fall dessert…a delicious alternative to a traditional pumpkin pie and a great make ahead/cut ahead dessert for easy entertaining.

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