Pumpkin-Pecan Squares

A hungry ceramic pumpkin admires a holiday treat

Once upon a time, my cooking-addict mother and I happened upon the Disney of cooking stores: WILLIAMS-SONOMA. I about wet myself upon entering the store after smelling the delicious aroma pervading the surrounding atmosphere. I learned they were making Pumpkin-Pecan Squares and an angelic aproned grandma handed me a tiny taste. They were the most sophisticated treat I ever laid tongue on. A recipe was innocently laying beside the samples. I grabbed it, and clenched it in my hand, making sure no one would ever separate us. And no one ever did. The end.

If you make these, I give you my promise everyone who eats them will fall in love with you.

1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick (8 TBSP) unsalted butter, melted
3 eggs
1 jar pumpkin butter (see my recipe for pumpkin butter if you don't want to spend a fortune on Williams-Sonoma pumpkin butter)
2 TBSP milk
1 TBSP flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350'. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan. Reserve 1 cup of cake mix in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together remaining cake mix, melted butter and 1 egg. Pour into prepared pan. In another bowl, stir together pecan pumpkin butter, remaining 2 eggs, and milk. Spread mixture over cake batter. Add flour, sugar and cinnamon to bowl with reserved cake mix and stir to combine. Add cold butter pieces. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until pea-sized crumbles form. Crumble the mixture on top of cake. Bake 40 minutes or until cake is golden. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool. Cut into 36 squares.