Leaves paint the ground.
Vivid orange, red, and yellow swirl through the sky, stirred by a cool Fall breeze.
Monet’s paintbrush.
(Hope you liked my little poem!)
Fall is by far my favorite time of year. Everything about it just seems so cozy: oversized sweaters, steamy mugs of hot cider, scarecrows and falling leaves. It’s the comfort food of seasons. Not to mention the actual comfort foods of Fall: roasted veggies, juicy apples, and—of course—pumpkin!
Topped with my favorite Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting.
If you could sum up “Fall” in a bar, this would be it. My first attempt at these bars was based on a (non-vegan) recipe I found online from Better Homes and Gardens. Sadly, that attempt turned out bland and dry. So for my second attempt, I went with my own intuition, adding ingredients I thought sounded good together and hoping for the best.
Oh they were delicious! These bars have a soft texture and the perfect balance of sweet to spice.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars
(These can be gluten-free!)
- 1/2 cup spelt or white flour, oat flour, or Bob’s gf)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ener-g powder OR 1 tbsp ground flax (If necessary, you can omit completely)
- 3 tbsp brown sugar or agave (For a sugar-free version, you can use xylitol)
- pinch uncut stevia OR 2 more tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup canned or cooked and pureed pumpkin
- 2 tbsp milk of choice
- 2 tbsp oil (Some readers say subbing applesauce is fine, but I haven’t tried)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients, then add in wet. Spread into an oiled 7×5 pan (or double the recipe for an 8×8) and cook for 14-15 minutes. Note: You can sub agave for the sugar; they’ll just be fluffier and a bit more dense. Let the pan cool for at least ten minutes before cutting or frosting the squares. Also, the flavors seem to intensify and these taste even sweeter the next day.
View Pumpkin Bars Nutrition Facts
You can frost with the aforementioned Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting. Or you can opt to leave them plain. They are deliciously-sweet even when completely unfrosted! (Alternative topping ideas include: apple butter, peanut butter, coconut butter, etc.)
Do you like reading or writing poetry?
I actually do, which is surprising because I hated reading poetry when I was younger. I’d get so confused! But I’ve always loved writing freestyle poetry, where there are no rules—you get to throw in exactly the words you want, in exactly the order you want. Come to think of it, that’s how I create recipes, too!
to make them gluten-free, do you just use gluten-free flour?
I’ve made them with Bob’s gf all purpose mix and it works well!
Mine didn’t come out fudgy at all like the picture, but very dense and cakey. What would you recommend I do differently? I used whole wheat flower.. Could that have been the culprit?
Unfortunately, using ww flour is not following the recipe. I can only vouch for the recipe if made according to instructions. Please see my FAQ page for more on this subject and why it’s important to follow a recipe to the letter.
Do you think it would work to substitute banana for pumpkin in these bars??
May I recommend a Print Recipe feature on your recipes?? I love your recipes, and would like to add them to my recipe binder. I copy and paste presently, but being able to print easily would be helpful! 🙂 Just a thought. Thank you for posting awesome, healthy, YUMMY recipes!!
Here you go!
https://lett-trim.today/2014/10/12/chocolate-covered-katie-brand-new-blog-features/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
That. Is. AWESOME!!! WHOOO!!! Thank you so much!
We don’t have a microwave to melt our coconut oil and i just ran out of safflower oil (my vebetable oil replacement) so i subbed with EVOO and added a little extra sweetener. In the oven now! Hopefully they turn out alright.
Has anyone used EVOO in this before?
I just made these, and they smell beautifully aromatic! Just like Fall. I was wondering, in the nutrition info, it says it makes 8 servings, but in the comments, you say it’s 14 servings, so I’m a bit confused. Is the calorie info for 8 or 14 servings?
I too am finding this problem… I don’t know if it should be 8 or 14.
It SPECIFICALLY says it is based on 8 in the nutrition facts.
After looking back again, I realized that I had read another commenters recipe in that they made 14 bars instead. I misread it thinking it was Katie posting it
Have you tried coconut sugar yet in recipes?
I’m so excited to finally have found an allergen free recipe!!! I’m going to quadruple the recipe for my son’s snack day. Thank you for making my life easier! I may even make these my Thanksgiving Day dessert.
Hi, i made it before and my kids just love it, but i need to know can we sub the sugar with honey?
Hi katie. I love your recipes. How about some printable recipes?
All of her recipes posted after 2014 have a print option.
I don’t know why but I had to put these back in the oven to bake again. After cooling I tried to cut them but it just glooped everywhere 🙁
The batter seemed really wet. I doubled the recipe for 8×8 glass dish maybe i should have anticipated doubling the baking time?
Do the bars to be stored in the fridge or just in a jar at room temperature? thanks!
Katie, these are so good!!! First of all, I am from Mexico, and pumpkin isn’t really a thing here, but I just kept seeing all these interesting pumpkin recipes in the blogs that I follow so when I went to Texas a few weeks ago, I grabbed some pumpkin and pumpkin spice. These pumpkin bars are the first thing that I make and my taste buds are dancing with joy right now. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out all these years. Now I have to try pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, pumpkin cookie dough ice cream… Argh, I should have bought more cans!
KATIE. Huge problem with these bars…they are too delicious and now I have lost all self-control. And they get better as they sit in the fridge!! I keep some whipped coconut cream and slice the bars in half and slather that in the middle like a sandwich. SO. GOOD.
I made these for Thanksgiving with Bob’s gluten free all purpose flour and they tasted off. Did I use the wrong GF flour? Do you have another recommendation for a GF flour? Would coconut flour work?
Thanks!
Hi! What other ingredients (oil, sugar, etc) did you use? And what do you mean by “off”? Is it just that you don’t like that flour’s flavor? This post looks like it’s from 2011, so if nothing else, might be worth trying the updated version of her recipe here! https://lett-trim.today/2018/09/10/chocolate-chip-pumpkin-bars/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I made these, but with sweet potatoes since pumpkin is very expensive to get here, and they are amazing! These will definitely be a repeat dessert/snack!