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!
YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! It’s raining outside and I’ma gonna maka me soma PCCB’s!
Ok – I digress…Thank you for indulging all of us monsters 🙂
I have a recipe to send you some time today after my “rainy day chores”
Hugs and swirly twirly candy wishes!
– Natasha
ps – It will be the season again soon…have you seen “Elf”? – his love of everything sweet reminds me of you 🙂 It is one of my “seasonal movies” to watch – and one of my chessy fav’s right up there with “Cone Heads”, and “Connie and Carla”.
Ahh I love Elf!!! It even inspired me to try maple syrup on my pasta. Verdict? It’s good! But then again, how could it not be? It’s syrup!!! 😉
OH! J’adore the poem.
Monet all the way suga!
I am a HUGE new fan of yours! Pumpkin bread is baking as I type this. You outlook on life is great, I’m so glad I came across your site!!!!!!!!!
Aww thank you so much! I am so glad you found me, too!!! 🙂
I made these with white whole wheat flour, a little bit less sugar, a little extra pumpkin for the egg replacer, and coconut oil. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. 😛 I topped them with your cheesecake frosting which I was very very pleased to find did not taste like tofu 😀 I LOVE tofu but hate the taste of it in my dessert 🙁 YUUUMMMMYYY!
So happy you liked them!!! 🙂 🙂
yum, katie! This blog post literally TASTES like fall to me! i loved your poem, i love your recipe, i am definitely trying this one! (and this time i’ll actually follow instructions so i don’t end up with something that looks different than your delicious-looking recipe!) i love you, i love your blog, i love fall!
xx alexandra
Love your poem Katie. Autumn’s my favorite time too….strange because everything is beginning to die, but I think the beauty of it all brings the hope of new life that’s quietly waiting for it’s season. This sounds so good…you said “egg of your choice”. How, and with what do you substitute eggs in a recipe? I can’t eat eggs and it would be so nice to know how to tweak recipes so I can enjoy more things. Thanks, you’re the best of the best!
If you can find something called “ener-g egg replacer” I cannot recommend it highly enough! Even if you’re not a vegan, I recommend it to everyone! It is MUCH more economical than eggs because you get a lot (over 100?) of servings from one little box, and you don’t have to worry about keeping it fresh. In moost baking recipes, all you do is add 1 tsp of the egg replacer for every egg you omit. (On the box, it says something about mixing it with water, but you can ignore that. It works fine just mixing it in with the other dry ingredients.)
Look in the baking section at a store like Whole Foods. Or, my regular Kroger and Tom Thumb grocery stores carry it in the natural food section.
I LOVE writing poetry! It comes very natural to me! Loved your poem 🙂
Was your poem a haikoo? Very niiice! These bars look amazing!!!
Haha I don’t know! I always wanted to break the rules when we did poetry that was supposed to fit within a certain form ;).
Just made these with almond flour and swirled in chocolate (unsweetened chocolate melted with a little coconut oil, vanilla and sweetener). Boyfriend ate the whole pan in about 10 minutes and wants more!
Oh wow, melted chocolate? You are a chocolate genius! That sounds incredible!
Those look so good! I can’t wait to get some canned pumpkin now, for these bars and your pumpkin spice latte recipe. You are the best!
I’m not a huge fan of poetry; I wouldn’t buy a poetry book or anything. Very, very occasionally, I’ll write a poem, but I’m more a short story writer and novelist than a poet. However, my writers’ group has a few poets, so I’ve gotten pretty good at editing poems. They can be pretty fun.
I reallllllly would like one of these right now! Do you deliver? 😀
Haha within a ten mile radius… I charge extra for farther distances. One chocollate bar per mile extra ;).
These look so delicious! I’ve definitely have pumpkin on the brain lately. I’m currently out of town, but can’t wait to get home to this one out.
I made these last night – delicious!
Just made two batches of these using garbanzo bean flour (gluten free and high in protein)! I used applesauce as the egg replacer for a low fat, and appropriate pairing with the pumpkin. They came out really well. Very soft and cake like. Thanks for the recipe. Always looking for delicious vegan/gluten free recipes 🙂
I love your idea to use garbanzo bean flour! I have a bag of it and never know what to do with it!
These look amazing! I’m going to try them with coconut or almond flour, since I’m on a grain-free diet at the moment.
I write songs for a living, which is a kind of poetry (just against a musical backdrop!). It’s my favourite aspect of my job as a musician!
Do you know how much stevia is equal to 1 packet? I only have the powdered bottled kind 🙁
The stevia in the packets isn’t pure stevia… it’s 1/2 a tsp in a packet, but once again it’s cut down with other ingredients. So I don’t know how much of the pure stuff that’s equal to. Maybe a google search for your specific brand will have a chart?