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- The crust is made with nutty brown butter and brown sugar plus bits of caramelized white chocolate, then pressed into the pan for a rich, butterscotch-flavored base.
- The custard-like filling blends smooth cream cheese and pumpkin puree with eggs, vanilla, melted butter, powdered sugar, and warm spices, baked just until set for that signature gooey texture.
- Once baked, the bars are cooled completely and can be refrigerated for up to three days; they’re best served lightly chilled to maintain their luscious, fudgy consistency.
Creamy and warmly spiced pumpkin treats are a widely anticipated hallmark of fall. From pie to cheesecake and quick bread, there’s no shortage of sweet ways to enjoy the season’s most popular squash — but we’re here to tell you not to sleep on these unforgettable Pumpkin Ooey-Gooey Bars with Brown Butter from James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Kelly Fields. Here, Fields incorporates deep caramel notes into the mix by combining brown butter and brown sugar for the base, richly accented with the addition of melt-in-your-mouth roasted white chocolate and lavished with a deeply satisfying pumpkin–cream cheese custard.
What are ooey-gooey bars?
Ooey-gooey bars are a sweet treat characterized by their buttery, cake-like base that’s topped with a creamy custard layer reminiscent of cheesecake. They’re a spin-off of gooey butter cake, a flat, dense dessert said to have been accidentally developed in St. Louis in the 1930s when a baker flipped the ratio of butter to flour. The original gooey butter cake featured a yeasted base; the inclusion of cream cheese in the filling is what sets apart the ooey-gooey variation.
How to brown butter
It’s easy to brown butter on the stove. Melt it in a saucepan over medium-low heat; at first, it will sputter — that’s the water content evaporating. Once the water is gone, the milk solids will cook, slowly toasting their way to a hazelnut brown color and infusing the fat with incredible nutty flavor. Keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn, swirling the pan or giving it a good stir at regular intervals and removing the pan from the heat as soon as the milk solids are deeply browned. While some applications call for including the toasted milk solids, they are not needed for this recipe.
Note from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen
Valrhona’s Dulcey chocolate, a caramelized blond version of white chocolate, is luxuriously creamy and buttery.
