ABC - Caramel Custard Pumpkin Seed Pie

This is the last recipe of the year which means this is the last recipe from Scientifically Sweet for the ABC bakers, or at least for the bake along. Feel free to bake from Christina's blog anytime as she adds new recipes almost weekly (these rugelach and these biscotti look really yummy but that's for another time). It was a delicious ride. I hope you enjoyed it just as much.

For this monthly challenge, the ABC bakers baked the Caramel Custard Pumpkin Seed Pie, or in my case, Caramel Custard Bars with Almond and Pumpkin Seeds. I needed a dessert to feed a lot of people at a work potluck, so I made some tweaks :)

Caramel Custard Bar with Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

***ANNOUNCEMENT***

In 2016 we will be baking from a new online recipe source that I'm very excited about: "Weekend Bakery" (http://www.weekendbakery.com/). They offer a variety of recipes: breads, rolls, cakes, cookies, you name it. Happy baking!

ABC - Neapolitan Bars

Our second August recipe for the Avid Baker's Challenge club was chosen by Lynnette of Dessert Divine. She has baked almost every ABC recipe since she joined, always with a lot of excitement, so I wanted to say thanks by having her select a recipe for all of us to bake. She chose Neapolitan Bars from Flo Braker's Baking For All Occasions. It's basically a multi-layered bar that starts with a buttery crust, topped with raspberry jam and green-tinted frangipane, and later covered with a rich chocolate glaze. I love almonds so I couldn't wait to get started on this one.

I made my own almond paste using Joe Pastry's recipe (I've made it once before - it was so easy/quick/more delicious than any store bought almond paste, that I vowed to always make it from scratch). The bars came together easily. My only beef with the recipe was that it took too many steps and too much waiting (maybe I'm growing old and impatient, ha ha). I also had issues making the frangipane in the KitchenAid. It remained crumbly no matter what I did. I wasn't about to take more time to press it through a medium sieve, so I dumped everything in the food processor and in less than 20 seconds, voila, the frangipane was whizzed to perfection :o) I was surprised Flo didn't have us use the food processor for that and should have followed my instincts on that one right away (after all, that's how I've made frangipane in the past).