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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Print

RECIPE

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!

Yield: 16 Servings 1x
  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup almond flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs, lightly whisked
  • 1/4 cup milk of choice
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 1/2 cups 100% pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 1 (8 oz) package 1/3 less-fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons milk of choice

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, maple syrup and pumpkin puree and stir until well-combined.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
  5. Pour pumpkin mixture into a prepared 9×9-inch baking dish and bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Let the pumpkin bars sit for 5 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
  7. While the bars are cooling, add cream cheese, maple syrup and vanilla extract to the bowl of your stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer) and whip on high until smooth. Add the milk a teaspoon at a time until you have your desired creaminess.
  8. 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!

Nutrition Facts:

  • Serving Size: 1 bar
  • Calories: 186
  • Sugar: 7.1 g
  • Sodium: 271 g
  • Fat: 7.1 g
  • Saturated Fat: 2.4 g
  • Carbohydrates: 26.3 g
  • Fiber: 4 g
  • Protein: 6.8 g

* Please note that all nutrition information are just estimates. Values will vary among brands, so we encourage you to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.

If you make this recipe, share a photo on Instagram and tag it #EatYourselfSkinny . I love seeing what you made!

As a self-proclaimed foodie and fitness enthusiast, I have a passion for cooking and a huge desire to show that living a healthy lifestyle can actually be easy and fun!  Feel free to use the meal guide above to find your new favorite meal ideas or the dietary guides to the right to narrow things down even more!

Related Recipes

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

40 Comments

  1. Kim Hamlet says:

    What are your suggestions for me to make this Gluten free

  2. KRenee says:

    I was searching for a healthier pumpkin bar recipe the other day and stumbled upon yours. It sounded so delicious and to be honest, it exceeded my expectations! The frosting was a little bit runnier than the traditional cream cheese frosting recipes, but I feel if I would have used 1 tsp of milk, it would have been just right. As it was, I just drizzled it over the bars and I had rave reviews. Yours will be the first site I look at for clean recipes. Thank you!

  3. Caroline says:

    This cake turned out so moist and delicious! You would never think that there is no butter or oil in it. I did not have Almond flour so I ground up some Pecans very finely to make Pecan flour and used it as a replacement (1:1 ratio). I added 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract to the batter and also frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum, yum, yum!

    1. Kelly says:

      Love that you made your own flour! So glad you enjoyed these! 🙂

  4. Michelle says:

    Just made this and it turned out amazing. I used Namaste gluten-free flour blend in place of the whole wheat flour and it came out so fluffy and light. This will be go-to for me going forward. So many pumpkin bar recipes call for a cup of oil and I just did not want something that oily. Thanks for this healthier recipe!

    1. Kim Hamlet says:

      Did you still use the almond flour with the Namaste GF flour?

  5. Janet Zdichavsky says:

    These pumpkin bars are amazing, soft and delicious, high rising and super healthy. I sweeten with the apple sauce with stevia added in both the cake and the topping. I also use tofutti creme cheese sweetened with apple sauce and stevia as well. I,v e made them several times they are that good and making two more as Christmas gifts tomorrow.