HAPPY THURSDAY and welcome to day 4 of pumpkin week. This recipe could be one of my favorites of the week and one that I think many of you will absolutely adore.
I made these bars because I’m infatuated with pumpkin pie. Like straight up obsessed. But I think I’ve told you that a million times.
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Ingredients in healthy pumpkin pie bars
The paleo pumpkin pie bar filling is made with simple ingredients that I based off my healthy pumpkin pie recipe and the crust is one of my favorites because it’s soft, doughy and tastes incredibly similar to a soft lofthouse style sugar cookie. The recipe for the crust is just slightly adapted from my AMAZING almond flour sugar cookie recipe so you know you’ll love these bars. Here’s everything you need to make them:
- Coconut oil: we’re using a bit of coconut oil in the crust for the perfect amount of moisture. You can also use butter or vegan butter.
- Coconut sugar: you’ll add coconut sugar in the sugar cookie crust and a bit in the filling to naturally sweeten it.
- Eggs: you’ll need 3 eggs in this recipe – one for the crust and two for the filling. I cannot offer a suggestion for a vegan substitute as the filling consistency relies heavily on the eggs.
- Vanilla extract: for a little boost of flavor.
- Almond & coconut flour: the crust is made out of a mix of almond flour and coconut flour to keep it grain and gluten free. So delicious.
- Baking soda & salt: to help these pumpkin pie bars bake up well.
- Pumpkin puree: feel free to use canned pumpkin puree or make your own with this tutorial!
- Almond milk: the filling will need a little extra moisture from almond milk. Feel free to use any milk you’d like.
- Maple syrup: we’re adding a bit of pure maple syrup to the filling as well for additional sweetness.
- Pumpkin pie spice: you can use pre-made pumpkin pie spice or make your own with cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger and allspice or cloves.
- Optional toppings: powdered sugar (or my paleo powdered sugar), whipped cream and/or coconut whipped cream
How to make paleo pumpkin pie bars
The only downside to this recipe is that it needs to cool completely then sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours before you enjoy it. My recommendation? Make it the night before!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add in coconut oil, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Process for 20-30 seconds until well combined.
- Next add in almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Process until a dough forms. Allow dough to sit for 5 minutes. You can also mix by hand or use an electric mixer, but I find the food processor to be the easiest.
- Add dough to the prepared baking pan. Use a rubber spatula or your hands to help you even spread out the dough towards the edges. It should be thin, but don’t worry, it will puff up when it bakes. Bake for 9 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool for a 3-5 minutes.
- To make the filling: In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs, almond milk, maple syrup, coconut sugar, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice until smooth. Pour over the sugar cookie crust, and tap gently on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 50-60 minutes until set and filling no longer jiggles.
- Remove and allow to cool completely at room temperature before covering with plastic wrap and transferring to the fridge for 6-8 hours, or overnight if desired.
- Once ready, cut into 12 bars and serve with whipped cream or powdered sugar. I like to cut off the edges of my bars for a prettier look. Store bars in fridge for up to 5 days.
How to store healthy pumpkin pie bars
Once your pumpkin pie bars are completely cooled, place them into airtight containers and store it in the fridge for up to 5 days. Enjoy straight from the fridge!
Can you freeze pumpkin pie bars?
Yes! To freeze these paleo pumpkin pie bars simply let them cool completely, wrap them up well and freeze them for up to 1 month. Before serving let the pumpkin pie bars thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
I love enjoying these bars as is or topping them with whipped cream or powdered sugar. They’re literally the best and perfect for your Thanksgiving table.
More pumpkin recipes to try
The Best Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls You’ll Ever Eat
Healthy Soft Pumpkin Cookies with Salted Maple Frosting
Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Maple Glaze
Baked Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cups
Coconut Double Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
If you make these healthy pumpkin pie bars, be sure to leave a comment and rate the recipe below letting me know how you liked it, You can also follow me on Instagram and tag #ambitiouskitchen!
Paleo Pumpkin Pie Bars with Almond Flour Sugar Cookie Crust
Ingredients
- For the sugar cookie crust:
- 1/4 cup melted and cooled coconut oil
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup packed fine almond flour (do not use almond meal)
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- For the filling:
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or can sub coconut milk)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon allspice or cloves)
- Options for topping:
- Powdered sugar
- Whipped cream or coconut whipped cream, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- To make the crust:In the bowl of a food processor, add in coconut oil, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Process for 20-30 seconds until well combined.
- Next add in almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Process until a dough forms. Allow dough to sit for 5 minutes. You can also mix by hand or use an electric mixer, but I find the food processor to be the easiest.
- Add dough to the prepared baking pan. Use a rubber spatula or your hands to help you even spread out the dough towards the edges. It should be thin, but don’t worry, it will puff up when it bakes. Bake for 9 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool for a 3-5 minutes.
- To make the filling: In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs, almond milk, maple syrup, coconut sugar, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice until smooth. Pour over the sugar cookie crust, and tap gently on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 50-60 minutes until set and filling no longer jiggles.
- Remove and allow to cool completely at room temperature before covering with plastic wrap and transferring to the fridge for 6-8 hours, or overnight if desired.
- Once ready, cut into 12 bars and serve with whipped cream or powdered sugar. I like to cut off the edges of my bars for a prettier look. Store bars in fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen
Photography by: Sarah Fennel // Broma Bakery
Great
These are the most delicious bars! I do sub out the crust for a gingersnap cookie crust but the filling and technique of the baking of the bars is flawless and they turn out perfect and delicious every time. Thank you for a great recipe.
YES so good! Glad you loved them!
Absolutely loved this recipe and the fact that it is refined sugar free. so simple and easy to do and packed with delicious flavor! This will be made every Thanksgiving!
These bars are so good! I will use this recipe for my go to pumpkin desert. I added 1/4 cup non fat plain greek yogurt and 1 scoop of vanilla protein to boost the protein content. It baked really well, came right out of the pan thanks to the parchment paper. Not super sweet and I feel good that I got a treat that won’t send me into a sugar coma. Thank you.
Amazing! Glad those additions worked out well!
Can you reduce the sugar in the filling without it effecting the consistency?
Hmm I haven’t tested it so I’m not 100% sure!
We grew pumpkins this year, and I was looking for a way to use some of the puree. I made this according to the recipe. DELICIOUS! We like this crust better than the typical pumpkin pie crust.
Amazing! So happy to hear that!
Hi, i just wanted to give feedback regarding the amount of adverts on your page. It makes reading your recipes very challenging. I close them and they pop back up covering the content. It’s one of the most unlikeable aspects of recipe blogs and pages unfortunately.
Hi Elyza! Thanks so much for your feedback. We do our best to keep our site user-friendly without interruptions, and the ads should not cover any of the content. If you can, would you be able to take a screenshot where this is happening and email it to [email protected]? We’d love to help troubleshoot in any way that we can.
any potential to double and do in 9×13 pan?
I haven’t tried it, so I am not sure how it would work out or if the baking time would need to change at all. Let me know if you give it a try!
Should I pack the almond flour, or spoon and level? Your sugar cookie recipe says to pack tight, but usually I see people’s recipes call for spoon and level. Thanks!
Hi Annie – You can spoon and level for this recipe. Hope you enjoy!
Made this recipe with just a few modifications (dairy free butter stick substitute vs. coconut oil, all-purpose gluten free flour vs. almond & coconut flour mix, coconut milk vs. almond milk) for a work event and everyone seemed to like it. I couldn’t figure out why the powdered sugar was just absorbing into the bar vs. staying on top. Either I didn’t use enough powdered sugar or the bars had been sitting at room temperature too long and the pumpkin was too wet and absorbed it. I will maybe try baking it a little longer next time to set the pumpkin filling a little better. But overall a great gluten free/dairy free recipe!
Hi Julia – Hmm I am not sure why that could be happening, were your cookies still warm or were you in a warm environment? It could have cause the powered sugar to melt?
Maybe I went wrong because I doubled the recipe and used a rectangle pan? That usually works for other recipes, but with this, my crust ended up super thick. Like, thicker than the pumpkin. Flavor was okay, but nothing amazing. I’m super sad because I always LOVE your other recipes!! Seriously, it’s so rare that I don’t absolutely love something from you!
I am not quite sure what might have gone wrong, unless the pan was too small possibly? The crust definitely shouldn’t have been thicker than the pumpkin.
I really like the recipe but almond flour burns easily. I took mine out after 40ish minutes and the bottom cookie crust was very dark and tasted burned. Please advise.
Thanks so much.
Did you have the oven at the correct temp? Which rack did you put the pan on?
Do you think you could use Bob’s gluten free flour for the cookie crust?
I haven’t tested this recipe with just plain GF flour, I am not sure it would turn out the same. The almond and coconut flour add a delicious texture that I am not sure the gf flour would provide.
It’s a 5 star for me. But also maybe a 10 best you had a “jump to the recipe” option! I love that soooo much!
Yay!! SO glad you loved these!
Halp! I just made these and didn’t realize it needed to sit in the fridge for a few hours. Can we eat it once it’s cooled from the oven? I don’t think we can wait lol
Sorry for the delay, I think these are best when chilled but I suppose you could dig in right away if you’re desperate hahaha!
This recipe is FANTASTIC! When I let them cool @room temp…I thought they were just *ok*..but, after refrigerating..they’re AMAZING!! So, so better than pumpkin pie!
You won’t be disappointed making these, even my non-paleo family LOVED these!
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe..looking forward to trying others!
YAY!! So glad that letting them fully cool made them perfect 🙂 Appreciate the review, Mimi!
This recipe was awful. Followed it as written. Crust was soggy. Flavor was blah.
So sorry you didn’t love them! I haven’t had that issue with the crust, but thanks for the feedback.
I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but am giving it five stars for how yummy it looks. Do you think i could forgo the parchment paper and just bake using a pan greased with butter? Thanks!
Haha thank you! Can’t wait for you to try it. I think it should be ok, just might be a little trickier to get the bars out cleanly. Good luck!
These are delicious! I didn’t have coconut flour so I added 1/4c oats (not a scientific substitution, it’s just what I had on hand) and the “sugar cookie” crust still turned out well. Make sure you don’t skip the chilling step!! I tried them after they came out of the oven and cooled a bit and didn’t love them but after they sat in the fridge overnight all the flavors came together they’re SO good!!
My bars were very moist & my crust was very soggy. I’m thinking I needed to cook my crust longer than 9 min. After that I let it cool for 4 min before pouring in the filling. I had no jiggling when I removed the pan from the oven after 50 min of cooking. The bars taste great but difficult to pick up because of the sogginess. Any suggestions for adjusting the recipe to improve the results? I did a trial run as I want to serve these next week for a function at my house. A swift response would be so appreciated!
Hi. It would be really helpful to include the measurements in the recipe steps. Or describe what we are combining the ingredients for, such as, in step 2. Is step 2 for the crust or filling? It would be helpful to know so I use accurate measurements. Thank you!
Apologies if that was unclear! The ingredients are listed in order of how you’d use them, so step 2, 3 and 4 are for the crust. We’ll clarify that, though!
I’ve made the carrot cake and strawberry cake and they come out great with Truvia sugar substitute. Will it work as well with your other recipes? I’m baking for diabetics and like the pumpkin bar recipe as it will also be low carb and contain real food.
Sorry to say I don’t use sugar substitutes so I can’t say! Let me know if you try it 🙂
Not sure what I did. The measurements were exact. But my crust is thicker than the pumpkin layer. Thoughts on what may have happened? I think I packed the almond flour a little too much! They are still delicious and will make them again!
oops! Maybe next time try baking in a 9×9 inch pan too for better results and loosely pack the almond flour?
I live in Australia where pumpkin isn’t seen as a dessert item and my Australian guests LOVED these on Thanksgiving. Thank you for this delicious recipe! I will definitely make them again next year.
I was craving pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving and this hit the spot! I only had oat flour so I used that and it turned out delicious.
These are so good! Tastes just like pumpkin pie and easy to make!
This is the best recipe for anything pumpkin. My kids are picky as well as my husband of what they like and then what they can eat. This recipe was so delicious that I did not need to freeze anything. It was eaten very quickly and a request that it would be made again. Well done on this recipe. The crust is delicious!!!
Absolutely! Glad these were a hit!
Made these for Thanksgiving, and they were amazing! I will definitely make again.
I’m so glad! Such a great dessert 🙂
I’ve wanted to make this recipe for years and I’m glad I finally did! So easy and such a delicious replacement for me since I can’t have gluten. Highly recommend!
I’m so glad you did, too! Perfect treat 🙂
I made these for our family Thanksgiving. I’m sorry to say that I would not make these again or recommend to a friend and here’s why: 1. the “sugar cookie” base layer was very difficult to spread over the parchment paper (and in the end tasted bland; therefore, not worth the effort) 2. I baked both layers at the given temperature and time (50 minutes) and the bottom burned. 3. Overall, the taste and texture weren’t horrible but weren’t memorable
For these reasons, this recipe sadly won’t be making it into my collection of favorites.
Sorry to hear that! I wish I could help troubleshoot as many readers have had great success with these.
Just like pumpkin pie! I actually forgot to bake the crust first and it was still ok, just probably softer than it was supposed to be.
Whoops! Glad you still enjoyed 🙂
These bars were a HIT with our house, even among a group who doesn’t love pumpkin pie. The “sugar cookie crust” had a really unique texture that complimented the pumpkin very well. Already looking forward to making these again, thanks for the recipe!
Amazing! I’m so glad!
These are DELISH. I’ve made them quite a few times now. I love how light and fresh they are. I think they’re super yummy cold out of the refrigerator.