Peanut Butter Pumpkin Blondies

I was having a major peanut butter chocolate craving and have never made blondies, let alone brownies from scratch before.  I think peanut butter and chocolate is a match made in heaven!  I found a recipe for peanut butter white chocolate blondies and another recipe for blondies that had pumpkin and combined them and changed it a little and this is what I got. They are actually not THAT bad for you with the pumpkin and wheat bran and all.  You can also leave out the melted butter, but the texture will not be as melting in you mouth.


Ingredients:
 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
 1/4 cup wheat germ or wheat bran
 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs packed light brown sugar
 1 stick melted unsalted butter
 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
 1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
 2 eggs
 2 tsp vanilla extract
 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip
 1/4 cup peanut butter chips
 1/2 tsp baking powder
 1/2 tspof salt
 4 tbs honey
 If you like nuts, you can add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, pistachio (sounds good!)  etc...


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or with melted butter.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, honey and peanut butter with hand mixer until smooth.
3.  Fold  in pumpkin and incorporate everything evenly.
4.  Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl- flour, salt, wheat germ.
5.  Fold in mix ingredients into wet ingredients and stir together well.
6.  Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chip
7. Spread the finished mixture evenly in greased baking pan and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes.  Test with a toothpick, it should come out clean.  It is also best if it is just a little undercooked, it is more moist that way.
8. Let bars cool in pan before cutting.