These chocolate chip pumpkin bars are the perfect easy dessert for Fall!
Gooey Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars
They’re like a cross between chocolate chip cookies and homemade pumpkin pie.
I wasn’t sure if September was too early for pumpkin recipes, but when I asked on Instagram, everyone’s response was a resounding Please start posting pumpkin recipes, like, RIGHT NOW!
I took that as a good sign for getting this recipe up as soon as possible. Apparently the internet really loves pumpkin. Who knew?
(Everyone. Everyone knew.)
Trending Now: Keto Cookies – low carb recipe
Grab your flannel shirts and leggings
Put on your Ugg boots
Make a batch of these gooey chocolate chip pumpkin bars
And surrender yourself to the basicness of Pumpkin Season.
Seeing that Starbucks decided to bring back their infamous Pumpkin Spice Lattes in August, which then caused many other coffee shops and restaurants to follow suit, I guess I’m actually late to pumpkin season this year.
(Seriously, Starbucks? August??)
Figured now that the weather is finally getting cooler, I’d make up for it in true Chocolate-Covered-Katie fashion – with both pumpkin and chocolate.
Also Try These Vegan Brownies
Almond Butter Version: Almond butter has a neutral flavor that works really well here, and it’s my top pick for this recipe.
Using almond butter instead of oil adds fiber, vitamins, healthy fats, and nutrition to the oil-free pumpkin bars.
Peanut Butter Version: If you love both peanut butter and pumpkin, you might want to try the recipe with peanut butter. It definitely will have a peanut butter flavor though, so be sure to keep that in mind.
Sunbutter Version: This is a great option if you need bars that are more allergy-friendly and can be served in a peanut-free environment.
Readers have mentioned in my similar recipe for Ryan Reynolds Blondies that the bars turn kind of a funny color if made with sunflower butter but that they still taste just as delicious.
Other Nut Butters Or Butter Spreads: I haven’t tried the recipe using anything else but I’d imagine any nut butter—such as pecan, walnut, or cashew—would work here.
I’d also think a regular butter spread such as Earth Balance would be fine to sub but haven’t tried it yet. If you do experiment, be sure to report back with results!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree or sweet potato
- 1/2 cup milk of choice
- 2 cups almond butter or allergy-friendly sub
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup flour, such as oat, white, spelt, sorghum, or even almond
- 1 cup sugar, unrefined or erythritol if desired
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or additional cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or more as desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment. Stir all ingredients together to form a batter. Add more milk of choice if needed to achieve a cookie-dough-like batter – the amount will depend on the flour and type of nut butter you use. Smooth the batter into the pan. If desired, press more chocolate chips on top. Bake 15-20 minutes on the center rack. They’ll look way underdone – let them cool for at least an hour, during which time they’ll firm up, and they firm up even more overnight if covered loosely on the counter.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
More Healthy Pumpkin Recipes:
Tried it with one cup butter, one cup almond flour and 25’ mins in the oven. Tasted pretty good but the texture was basically too wet going in and came out as cookie dough.
Just let them sit overnight and they’ll firm up nicely!
SOOOOOOO…… Somehow I was making this recipe that I had pulled up on my iPad. Then I finished the recipe using my laptop not realizing that I had accidentally used both this and the pumpkin bar recipe simultaneously. I did the first three ingredients of this recipe then switched to the pumpkin bar one, skipped the pumpkin and sugar since I already added it and doubled the recipe. in a 9″ baking dish. Oh. My. Goodness. THE. BEST. OF. BOTH. WORLDS. Now I need to write it down! The texture was thick but smooth and creamy… I’m drooling. Off to make more!
PS – Also used PB2 because less calories and no taste compromise! Yay!
I used almond flour and Trader Joe’s raw almond butter for this recipe. Used 3/4c Swerve instead of sugar and used Lily’s chocolate chips. Took it out after 20 minutes. It was so wet. Left it on the counter all night per the instructions, cut into it in the morning, still not solid. Tastes delicious and I will eat but the consistency was not right. The same thing happened to me with almond brownies. I’m guessing the almond butter is just too oily and I need to increase the almond flour, I wanted to share in case anyone else wants to use the same ingredients.
I just made these and had the exact same problem and I used gluten free flour!! Delicious, but total mush. I’m wondering if oat flour or maybe even coconut flour would be better?
Hi Darby, did you let them sit overnight? They firm up that way!
Jason
Hi! No I did not sadly! I brought them to my friends. Everyone loved them regardless and no one knew they were actually sugar free!
Oh haha well at least they were a hit! Personally I’d take super gooey over dry and cakey any day! ?
Can I use sesame butter? Tahini?
It sounds like a fun experiment. Please be sure to report back for the rest of us as to the flavor if you try!
I just made these and the tops look GREAT. But then I cut into them. They look like raw dough. I baked them for 20 minutes. Quite a bummer actually. Not even sure what the hell to do with them? Ice cream topping? Face mask?
Ok face mask sounds amazing lol. BUT just refrigerate overnight and they will firm up a ton.
I accidentally bought pumpkin pie filling and not pumpkin puree. Can I use this instead and out less sugar?
Can the nutbutter be subbed with a healthier option like banana?
Wow! They are AMAZING!! Gooey and oh so yummy! I made a batch yesterday and they are almost gone so we are making another one today! I made the mistake of putting your recipe in an 8×8 so it took awhile longer to cook but they still taste amazing!
I love Katie’s healthy/lighter desserts and look forward to trying this. However, I think the nutrition information provided may be off. With 2 cups of almond butter, and 30 servings, each bar would have over 1 TBS of almond butter, or about 98 cal from the almond butter only. Add in the other ingredients, and my calculations are closer to 175 cal per bar than 90, unless I am misreading something?
I have made around ten of your recipes and these bars are by far my favorite! I made my own peanut butter in my food processor with no salt or sugar added and put a touch less than 2 cups in the recipe. There’s no overwhelming peanut butter taste and they came out delicious! They definitely need to firm up overnight, but I couldn’t resist having some after an hour and a half of cooling on the counter.