Healthier Pumpkin Bars

These Healthier Pumpkin Bars are moist, taste just like cake, and are made without any butter, oil or refined sugar! Topped with a delicious maple cream cheese frosting and loaded with so much pumpkin flavor!

Wow I can’t believe it’s already September and you know what that means! Boots, scarves and pumpkin EVERYTHING! I was so excited to whip up my first pumpkin recipe of the season and oh were these bars delicious. I mean they’re basically slices of ~~heaven~~ CAKE that are moist, delicious and a much healthier option than most pumpkin bars out there that are full of butter and refined sugar, but I promise these don’t sacrifice any flavor!

Why You’ll Love these Pumpkin Bars

Super moist and tastes just like cake!
Loaded with pumpkin flavor for the perfect fall dessert.
These bars are made healthier with whole wheat flour, almond flour and zero butter, oil or refined sugar.
The maple cream cheese topping tastes incredible with these fall flavors!

Ingredients You’ll Need

whole wheat flour – I used whole wheat pastry flour as it has all the nutritional benefits of whole grain flour while making these pumpkin bars light and fluffy. I highly recommend using this, but if you don’t have any on hand you could use regular whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour or gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour.
almond flour – nutrient dense flour that adds additional fat (the good kind!) to these bars making them even more moist without the use of butter or oil.
baking powder + baking soda – acts as a leavening agent to help these bars rise.
pumpkin – I used canned pumpkin purée for this, just make sure you use 100% pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling as that is loaded with tons of sugar.
eggs – helps to bind all the ingredients together.
milk – adds additional moisture to these bars and regular milk or dairy-free milk will work in this recipe.
maple syrup – lightly sweetens these bars without using any refined sugar, you could also use honey or other natural sweetener.
warm spices – combination of pumpkin pie spice, ground cinnamon and salt.
cream cheese frosting – made with a combination of cream cheese, maple syrup, vanilla extract and a little milk to thin out the frosting.

How to Make Pumpkin Bars

Mix ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, maple syrup and pumpkin puree and stir until well-combined. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Bake the bars. Pour the pumpkin batter into a prepared 9×9-inch baking pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the pumpkin bars sit for 5 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Make cream cheese frosting. While the bars are cooling, add cream cheese, maple syrup and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use an electric mixer) and whip on high until smooth. Add the milk a teaspoon at a time until you have your desired creaminess. Evenly spread cream cheese frosting over the bars once they have cooled completely, top with a little extra pumpkin pie spice and cut into 16 pieces. Enjoy!

For this recipe I used an 9×9-inch baking dish which yielded about 16 good size bars (trust me the serving size is much bigger than the photos show!), but you could easily make the servings smaller and cut about 25 pieces if sharing with a lot of people.

Prepping and Storage

To Store: You can keep these pumpkin bars stored in a sealed, airtight container or covered in aluminum foil on the counter at room temp for up to a day, but make sure to refrigerate after that to keep them longer. These bars will last up to a week in the fridge in a sealed container.

To Freeze: These bars freeze really well too! I recommend freezing the bars individually and just pulling them out to thaw as needed. When ready to eat, just pop them in the microwave for 3o to 40 seconds or simply thaw out at room temperature. These will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months!

More Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Love

Hope you all enjoy these Healthier Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting and if you love this recipe as much as we do, please leave me a five-star rating below and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I love seeing all your delicious recreations!

RECIPE