Vegan Pumpkin Bars
You’ll fall in love with these Vegan Pumpkin Bars, with their buttery crust and delicious pumpkin pie filling, topped with even more delicious crumbles on top! If you’re looking for something different than the traditional pumpkin pie, these delicious pumpkin bars should do the trick!
Once they unleash the pumpkin flood gates, it’s really hard to stop. Even after Thanksgiving is over, I’m still in love with pumpkin. That’s why I’m sharing these Vegan Pumpkin Bars with you today.
And I toyed around with the idea of calling them breakfast bars because you really could have them for breakfast. But then think how disappointed you’d be when the rest of your day doesn’t compare to the delicious vegan pumpkin bars you had for breakfast?
What You Need
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
- Lemon — We’ll use both the zest and the juice of the lemon.
- Oats — I used rolled oats for this recipe, but you can substitute instant oats.
- Chia — We’ll add some ground chia seeds to create a thicker texture. You can use whole chia seeds; I just prefer ground because it creates a smoother finished texture.
- Syrup — I used maple syrup, but you can substitute agave nectar.
- Milk — We’ll use almond milk for the best overnight oats! Substitute your favorite plant-based milk.
- Yogurt — I love adding some plant-based yogurt (plain, unsweetened) for an even more tangy flavor.
- Protein Powder — I add some vanilla protein powder for increased flavor and nutrients. If your protein powder is not sweetened, you may want to add an extra teaspoon or two of sweetener.
- Cornstarch — We’ll use cornstarch to thicken the lemon curd topping.
- Turmeric — A pinch of turmeric makes that lemon curd sunny yellow.
- Coconut oil — Use refined coconut oil for a more neutral flavor.
- Peanut butter — I love substituting peanut butter for butter whenever I can. You can substitute vegan butter or coconut oil.
- Syrup — I use a syrup sweetener, like agave nectar or maple syrup.
- Vanilla extract
- Chopped pecans
- Flour — I recommend using whole wheat pastry flour (which is different than whole wheat flour) or all-purpose flour. Or you can substitute gluten-free flour.
- Rolled oats — These are also referred to as old fashioned oats.
- Spices — You’ll need ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Pumpkin puree — I use canned pumpkin.
- Ground flaxseed
How Do You Make Vegan Pumpkin Bars?
- Combine the coconut oil, syrup sweetener, vanilla, and pecans in a food processor until well combined.
- Add the flour, oats, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, and salt to the food processor and give it several short bursts of pulsing until combined.
- Press the crust into a prepared pan, reserving about a half cup for the topping.
- Stir together the pumpkin, flax, agave, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice. Spread it over the crust.
- Top with the reserved crust mixture.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- When done, remove it from the oven and cool completely. Then refrigerate for up to an hour before cutting into bars.
Storage Tips
Store these bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 to 7 days.
Marly’s Tips
If you’d like some ideas for making this recipe perfect or changing it to adapt to your tastes, I’ll get you started. Here are some of my favorite expert tips:
- Feel free to double the batch and use a 9×12″ cake pan
- Add a little vegan cream cheese to the pumpkin mix to make it even creamier
- Try a teaspoon or two of cinnamon in the pumpkin layer
- Straight out of the oven, these bars will be a bit crumbly but allow them to cool a bit and that crust will firm up nicely
More Pumpkin Recipes
Have you ever thought about combining pumpkin and chocolate? These egg-free pumpkin brownies do that perfectly. If you’d like to try some other pumpkin recipes, check these out:
We hope you love this recipe for Vegan Pumpkin Bars as much as we do.
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Vegan Pumpkin Bars
Ingredients
Oatmeal Crumble
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup syrup sweetener , Agave, Maple Syrup
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour (see note for gluten-free)
- 1 ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Pumpkin Filling
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons syrup sweetener , Agave, Maple Syrup
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Spray a 9×9 baking pan with vegetable spray.
- In a food processor, combine the coconut oil, syrup sweetener, vanilla, and pecans and pulse until well combined.*
- Then add the flour, oats, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, and salt to the food processor and give it several short bursts of pulsing until combined. Then use a spoon to stir in any stray ingredients. Press most of the the crust into your prepared pan, reserving about a half cup for topping.
- In a separate bowl, ½ combine the pumpkin, flax seeds, 2 tablespoons of agave, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir to combine. Spread the pumpkin mixture over the crust. Top with the reserved crust mixture.
- Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. The top should be golden brown.
- When done, remove from oven and cool completely. Then refrigerate for up to an hour before cutting into bars.
- These will keep up to 5 to 7 days in the fridge.
Recommended Equipment
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Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Enjoy!
Yummy but I did add some sugar and I used pecan maple syrup I added organic dates and pecan pieces to one batch
I made these today for the first time. To me, they are delicious in the sense of an energy bar, not too sweet, but definitely a treat and satisfying.
I doubled the amount of filling because it seemed to me that the proportion of crust to filling needed some rebalancing. I think I will triple the filling next time and add a little more coconut oil to the crust for moisture, make it more like a pumpkin pie.
I had to finish the crust by hand because my food processor is a little wimpy and wasn’t able to handle the addition of the dry ingredients. I also used whole wheat flour King Arthur’s) because that’s what I had on hand.
Thanks for a new kind of treat. We will see tomorrow night at my Christmas party how fast it goes.
Peanut butter is listed in #2 of the instructions.
When do you add in the peanut butter? I do not see it listed in the instructions. thanks!