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!
Fall in a bar indeed. I’m a little distracted by your fun pumpkin picture- wow model MUCH!?! hehe <3 these remind me of pumpkin fudge which i need to make on my blog soon. these bars are wonderful, i can't wait for all of your fall recipes- you always make the best treats!!
xoxo <3
Oh sweet Kelsey, you always leave the sweetest comments!! Love you so much!!!
I was just thinking that it’s about time to make something with pumpkin, and these bars look delicious!Also, I really like that you give substitutes in your recipe for different ingredients.
I’m not a poetry person AT ALL, but I love to read 🙂
I try to list substitutes because I know that it drives me crazy when I want to make someone’s recipe and am missing ONE ingredient lol :).
I just made these! They’re great – super-tender, not too sweet. Bravo!
One more thing, while I’m commenting – you and I have discussed meeting up before, since I’m in Dallas fairly frequently, but we’ve missed each other every time so far. BUT, as you may know, the Texas State Veggie Fair is next month – will you be there?! I’ll be giving a demo and talk on raw foods. I’d love it if you’d come! 😀
I completely forgot about it! If you will be there, then I must go! Off to google the dates…
Yeah!! You’ve gotta come! It’s Sunday 10/23. I don’t yet know what *time* my demo’s at, but the whole fair is from 11-7, I think.
No offense, but I think you need to check your BMI because you seem to look unhealthily thin in this portrait of you at the pumpkin patch. I love all your recipes, but maybe you should consider eating a few more calories a day!
Katie, these were fabulous! They were so flavorful and soft. I couldn’t believe it. Thanks for making a believer out of this healthy food skeptic and her family. You rock!
P.S. I found you from your feature on glamour.com. Now I’m a new fan :).
Just wondering..is the nutrional information you provide calculated with or without the cream cheese frosting?
without
Hello! Just wondering..is the nutritional info you provide calcultated with or without the cream cheese frosting?
Ok so my third batch are in the oven!!! these are so good i made a batch last night and im making two more for friends right now 🙂 soo good mmmm
Aww I can’t even tell you how happy this made me!! 🙂
I loved these. Thanks for the recipe, they were great!
These sound delicious. I’ll make some this weekend after I go to Trader Joes. However, I’ll use sweet potato instead, not really fond of pumpkin. Will grind up some walnuts to use as a flour. Might even add a layer of coconut flakes to the bottom. Oh boy, I can’t wait to try these.
How much applesauce goes in as an egg substitute? Or could I just use a real egg?
I’ve never tried it with just extra applesauce… honestly, I think if you just omitted, it might be a little less fluffy but still completely fine. I have no idea how a real egg would work, because it’s more liquidy. But really, I don’t think it *needs* any type of egg at all.
If you do try it without the egg, I’d love to know how it turns out! 🙂
Used the applesauce. The overall product was really soft, never really set up. Will just crumble them up and eat as a warm cereal. Might try again because I have extra sweet potatoes, and omit the applesauce.
Using the applesauce probably made it too moist. I’d either omit completely or maybe add a little extra baking powder… or, if you can possibly find it, ener-g is really becoming more readily available. It’s even in my mainstream grocery store! And even if you’re not a vegan, it’s an awesome thing to keep on hand, because you can use it any time you want to bake with an egg, and you don’t have to keep it fresh. Plus, one box gives you a ton of servings.
LOL I promise they’re not paying me to pitch their product! 😉
Hi Katie,
Just wanted to report that I made these last week pre-office party, as a test run, and they are delicious. So I made another batch for the office party.
I followed the recipe exactly except I did try it with a real egg – and mine were very cake-like. I’m going to try it out again with a flax egg, because I want mine to have that gooey brownie look that is in your picture! I might try a smaller pan as well and see if that makes a difference.
These were delicious – I think it’s the coconut oil that is KEY!!
I’m also going to try out the chocolate suggestion above. And the chickpea flour too. Whew. so many options. Yum!!
The only thing that didn’t turn out for me…I tried to make the healthier cream cheese frosting, and I must have used the wrong kind of tofu, b/c mine just tasted like tofu. I was also using liquid stevia, and had to keep adding until I finally gave up and just used real sugar.
But these bars do not need frosting! They are delicious on their own and I plan to put this yummy snack on our regular rotation, so THANK YOU KATIE!!
Aww I am so so glad they came out well!
To be honest, I don’t have much experience with flax eggs. I really like the ener-g because it’s so easy (and cheap!). But I know a lot of other people like using flax in place of eggs. I probably should experiment with it more, since flax is so healthy.
For the icing: what brand/firmness of tofu did you use?
I made this recipe using whole wheat flour, 2 egg whites, light vanilla soymilk, and vanilla greek yogurt (instead of the oil), and it was FABULOUS. Actually, I’ve made it twice in the past 2 days (and doubled the recipe today!). I forgot the vanilla extract tonight, but I think the vanilla soymilk and vanilla greek yogurt made up for it. They’re so soft and just absolutely delicious! Each serving of my version is only 86 calories with 0.2g fat, 17.8g carbs, and 3.2g protein! 🙂
I should’ve specified that I made my version 6 servings instead of 14.
Aww wow, Allison, I am so so excited they turned out well for you! 🙂 🙂
How much of the yogurt did you use, and did you keep the milk the same as Katie’s recipe? I’m looking for a lower fat version and the greek yogurt would be a great substitute since people are saying the apple sauce isn’t the best.
Just made this.
IT WAS AMAZING! I put a bit more salt and pumpkin spice. Served it warm with ice cream… Divine. My friends loved it too =)
I am so happy you (and your friends!!) liked them. 🙂
I just made these… my teen who doesnt like anything healthy didnt want to stop eating… I used the flax egg method. One T flax to a few tablespoons of hot water…. loved them… My 4 yo, hubby.. I said can we save half for tomorrow. I honestly dont think theyll make it….lol
I used whole wheat flour… thought I had spelt but must have used it for cupcakes….
your blog is definitely becoming a favorite… I wanna visit everyday to see what you come up with…LOVE the pumpkin stuff
Aww, thank you so so much! And also, thank you for commenting with the flax option. Now if people ask me how to make these with flax, I can point them to your comment! 🙂
I made again but with your vanilla fudge frosting didn’t have incredients for cream cheese frosting. These are so good.
So I decided to make these this morning, I subbed out 1T of oil for apple sauce but otherwise kept the recipe the same. I didn’t have an 8 x 8 pan so I had to use a 9 x 9 which made the bars a little thinner.
They turned out great, even though I left them on a cooling rack on top of the stove which I FORGOT to turn off! So they were nicely warm when I got home 8 hours later. The edges are a little crunchy but that’s okay! :0)
Ooh I’m really glad they worked! LOL sometimes crunchy is a fun texture… maybe like pumpkin potato chips? Hmmm… 🙂
They’re still REALLY good! I borrowed the right size pan from my mom so I’ll make another batch when these are gone but I’m going to add some cocoa to it just cause I LOVE pumpkin and chocolate together! :0))
i added pumpkin spice to the frosting.. soo good! loved these bars def making again!