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Healthy Pumpkin Bars are made without flour or refined sugar, and are surprisingly light and fluffy! They are one of my favorite grain-free desserts for the Fall, and once you taste them, I think you’ll fall in love with them, too.
Inspired by my Paleo Banana Snack Cake, this recipe uses almond butter instead of flour. It’s amazing how when you pair it with eggs and a little honey, it becomes quite cake-like!
Ingredients You’ll Need
What’s in healthy pumpkin bars?
- Almond butter
- Pumpkin puree
- Eggs
- Honey
- Pumpkin pie spice
If you don’t have almond butter on hand, cashew butter also makes a similar substitute. I’ve tested this recipe using peanut butter, and the results aren’t quite as delicious, because the peanut flavor competes with the pumpkin flavor too much.
For best results, I recommend using a “raw” or non-roasted nut butter, for the most mild flavor.
How to Make Pumpkin Bars
1. Mix. Combine the almond butter, pumpkin, honey, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, and stir until very smooth.
Once the batter is mixed, add in the vinegar and stir again. You’ll notice that lighter swirls will start to appear as you mix, and that is the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar.
This will help the bars rise even better, and will help to avoid an aftertaste from the baking soda.
2. Bake. Pour the mixture into a lined or greased 8-inch pan, and bake at 350ºF for 35 to 40 minutes.
When the pumpkin bars are done, the center should rise, without jiggling in the middle when you shake the pan.
3. Slice. Let the bars cool completely in the pan, then slice into squares and serve right away.
These pumpkin bars are lightly sweet on their own, but I like topping them with a quick maple pecan glaze for an extra-special dessert. To make it, you just need to blend a few ingredients together!
This glaze is naturally sweetened and will NOT set like one made with powdered sugar, so it’s best to drizzle it over the bars right as you serve them, with a few chopped pecans on top.
They taste so impressive this way!
Pro Tip: For an even deeper flavor, swap the water in the Maple Pecan Glaze for black coffee. The maple coffee flavor is also excellent on these healthy pumpkin bars.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I swap the sweetener? This recipe should work well with a 1/2 cup of maple syrup to replace the honey. II’ve also tested it with 2/3 cup of coconut sugar, but the texture changes slightly when you swap a liquid sweetener for a granulated one.
I don’t work with zero calorie sweeteners, so I don’t know how this will work with a sweetener like stevia.
Can I make this vegan? Try my Vegan & Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bars recipe, for an egg-free recipe that is already tested for you.
Or try my Vegan Pumpkin Muffins, if you prefer to work with oat flour.
Can I make pumpkin puree from scratch? Check out my how to cook pumpkin tutorial, for the easiest way to make pumpkin puree at home!
More Pumpkin Recipes
Looking for more pumpkin inspiration? Try these!
- Pumpkin Ice Cream
- Vegan Pumpkin Donuts
- Oat Flour Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Overnight Oats
- Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Spice Latte
Ingredients
Pumpkin Bars
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Maple Pecan Glaze
- 3/4 cup pecans , plus extra chopped for serving
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup water (or coffee)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, almond butter, honey, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda, and stir until very smooth.
- Add the vinegar into the batter, and stir again. The batter will have lighter swirls in it, from the baking soda reacting to the vinegar. This will help the bars rise and remove any baking soda flavor in the final bars, so keep stirring until the batter looks uniform. Pour into a greased 8-inch baking dish, lined with parchment paper for easy removal later.
- Bake at 350ºF for about 35 minutes, until the bars rise in the center and don't jiggle when you shake the pan. Cool completely, then slice and serve.
- To make the optional Maple Pecan Glaze, combine the pecans, maple syrup, coconut oil, water, vanilla, and salt. Blend until very smooth, scraping down the blender as needed. You can add a tablespoon of water, as needed, to help it blend. Pour the glaze over the bars, and serve right away with chopped pecans on top.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you try these healthy pumpkin bars soon, please leave a star rating and comment below letting me know how you like them!
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Reader Feedback: Which Fall dessert would you like to see next?
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These look awesome! I was just wondering if you could use regular salt instead of sea salt 8)
Yes, I’m sure you can! Sea salt has slightly more “bang for its buck”– meaning less sodium and more flavor– but, I think regular salt will work just fine.
Hi Megan! I’m also a big fan of your website – I have a lot of food sensitivities so your recipes are a welcome change to the boring old stuff I’m used to. I was wondering if you’ve ever tried using white beans instead of almond butter for this recipe? I love it so much(and want to make it all the time) I was thinking using white beans might work similarly and be cheaper than the almond butter?
I don’t eat many beans, as they don’t seem to digest as easily in my system, but I’d love to hear if you have any success with trying them out! They’d definitely be an affordable alternative. 😉
I finally got around to making this (I never keep almond butter at home — don’t really like the taste on its own), using chunky almond butter, which actually added a nice crunch to the final product. I didn’t make any topping and just cut them into small squares for “freezer snacks.”
I made this on Sunday and it was gone by Monday morning! I didn’t have almond butter so I used cashew butter instead and it turned out really well. I skipped the glaze and added dark chocolate chips instead 🙂 It was similar to your Peanut Butter Blondies only more cake-like and less “fudgy”. Both are my new favorite baked goods! Thank you!
Are these bars good for freezing? I would like to make them ahead and freeze.
Hi Megan. I made these today but used a 6-count donut pan instead of an 8×8 pan and there were absolutely delicious! Surprisingly light and so dang, tasty, even without the yummy-looking topping. Thanks for an awesome recipe!
I just made these! They are awesome, and so easy. You are a genius! Now we are going to make your peanut butter cookies. Charlotte and I are on a roll.
I am about a year into being gluten free, and only a few months into being grain free, and this was one of my first grain free baking experiments (and the first one that was successful…). I made them with banana like the commenter above, and I can’t believe how good they are–I thought I had given up eating things like this! I can’t wait to try with pumpkin, and your other recipes too! Thanks 🙂
What type of almond butter did you use? Raw? Roasted?
I usually use the raw version from Trader Joe’s, but I think roasted would work fine, too!
I tried these using roasted, salted almond butter from Trader Joe’s (what I had) and they were good, but I think they’d be better with the raw version as the almond butter flavor took over and you couldn’t taste much of the pumpkin flavor (the best part!) Megan, do you add salt because your almond butter is unsalted?
Yes, my almond butter is unsalted. Hope you get to try the raw almond butter version next time! 🙂
Holy Cow! We had these this weekend and they were absolutely amazing! I can’t believe how moist and delicious. I’m not a huge “crust” fan and I would easily substitute these for pumpkin pie any time…..
I just made these, and it never solidified. It is like a gelatinous pudding – tasty, but far from bars. Maybe it’s because I used flax as an egg replacer?
Yes, flax eggs have a tendency to have that effect in recipes calling for more than one egg. Glad they taste good, at least!