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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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Hi! I made these and they tasted great but then this happened… We put the leftovers (about half the batch) in the fridge and the next afternoon the entire thing was dark green. Do we think I did something wrong here? I used sunflower butter instead of almond and did the spices individually but those were the only changes. I can’t think of what would cause that. Bad pumpkin? is that a thing?
It’s the sunflower seed butter! Sunflower seeds react to baking soda, making baked goods turn green. I’ve heard that it’s safe to eat, though! I was actually planning on using sunflower butter to make some green St. Patty’s Day treats next year. 😉
Okay, that’s a kind of awesome fact to learn! I was tempted to taste it because nothing about it seemed “off” – it was just green (a perfect St. Patty’s shade btw) I always forget that baking, is much more scientific than cooking- much more possibility for reactions in stuff. Thank you so much for getting back to me!
I love sun butter and use it on bread,as a substitute for nut butters,anything. Got one question though , can i use soy butter as a substitute for almond butter?
Thanks for this recipe,
The Gluten Free Girl
I made these yesterday and they were gone within 24 hours. I ate the whole batch! Then I felt guilty but did not beat myself up too badly for doing so. Proceed with caution, highly addictive!
How much liquid stevia would you use to replace the honey/do you need to increase the liquid in the recipe? Can you use chia egg replacer? Thanks?
The stevia amount is totally up to you– I usually add it by the dropperful, and taste the batter as I go. Make it a little sweeter than you think it should be, because some of the sweetness is reduced when baking stevia.
In my experience, chia and flax eggs don’t work well with brownies and bars. The result is gooey! I’d recommend trying Ener-G egg replacer instead. (I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard good things.)
I use Ener-G egg replacer and it works great. Definitely recommend it
I have made these and the pumpkin muffins using cashew butter and sun butter (my son has a nut allergy) and they both work just as good. I LOVE all your grain free treats!!!!!!
These are amazing! I think these are my new favorite grain free treat! I couldn’t wait to wake up this morning and have a pumpkin bar with maple pecan glaze and my cup of coffee…perfect fall morning! Thanks for a keeper recipe.
thank you for a wonderful web site with amazing recipes, and details.
We made several of your grain free muffins and they were delightful.
Thank you
Made these today and they turned out great! I made a few adjustments… didn’t have almond butter so I used pumpkin seed butter which worked quite well, I am allergic to eggs so I used 6 quail eggs instead, and then used raw agave syrup in place of the honey.
Delicious! Thanks!
I’m allergic to eggs too Jenni and was looking for a substitute for eggs. But I never tried quail eggs but definitely will try it.
AMAZING ! just made these my family loves them 🙂
Am counting calories, down 20 lbs, but would love to make this. How many calories in an 8×8 pan?
I recommend using a free calorie counting website, like FitDay.com, to calculate the calories in my recipes. Add in all of the ingredients, and you should be able to calculate the calories per serving from there!
These looks SO yummy…If I wanted to use almond flour instead of butter, would you recommend using more, less or leaving it at 1/2 cup?
I would double it! 1 cup almond flour = 1/2 cup almond butter.
Ok great, thank you! Going to make them now 🙂