Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

OMG....I can't tell you how delicious these sweet treats are. If you like pumpkin, you will absolutely love this dish. If not, I just don't know what to tell you. I had some fresh pumpkin I needed to use that was leftover from making some pumpkin oatmeal this past weekend, so I decided to bake last night. So far everyone that has had them said they taste great. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. One major change is that I used white whole wheat flour, to incorporate some whole grains, rather than all purpose flour. I also used light stick margarine instead of regular.

Whole Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Serves 12 large bars or roughly 24 smaller bars
Adapted from: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-bars/

Ingredients:
2 cups White whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon McCormick pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 2 sticks light stick margarine, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg or 1/4 cup eggbeaters (i used a real egg)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 package or 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Grease or spray nonstick cooking spray in a 13 x 9 baking pan and set aside.
-In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
-In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
-Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until combined with the sugar and butter.
-Add the pumpkin and mix well. The mixture might look a little funny or like it is curdled, but this is okay.
-Reduce the speed to low on the electric mixer and slowly incorporate the dry ingredients a little at a time into the large bowl of wet ingredients.
-Once the entire mixture is combined well, gently stir in the chocolate chip morsels.
-Spread the batter evenly in the 13 x 9 baking dish.
-Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (my oven took 38 minutes to cook these)
-Cool the bars completely before cutting into squares.
-serve or cover dish and serve at a later time

Enjoy! :)