September is here! The temperatures have dipped down into the 80s (a major cool off for us in Central California!). I also bought a couple cute pumpkins this week and the thought of wearing jeans and sweatshirts doesn’t make me want to cringe. With all that said, I think it’s time I shared a pumpkin recipe!
I happen to absolutely love the flavor of pumpkin. I didn’t grow up eating a ton of pumpkin recipes, as my dad cannot stand it. In fact, it is one of the few foods he will not touch. It’s for a funny reason, too. My Dad grew up in the Netherlands, and pumpkin isn’t a traditional food there. In fact, growing up on a farm, my dad saw pumpkin get fed to pigs. When he immigrated to the Unite States, my dad was always shocked people would eat it, and he referred to it as “pig food.” HA! I still laugh when I think about that. His dislike for it never steered me away, and I always look forward to enjoying pumpkin every fall!
The Recipe
As I was staring at my cans of pumpkin I bought a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t sure of what recipe to try first. As fate would have it, I was scrolling through my blog posts and saw these Monster Bars. I began to think that might be a great base for pumpkin bars. I decided to give it a try this weekend. I swapped out the pumpkin for the peanut butter and egg, added pumpkin pie spice, and used white chocolate chips to help sweeten up the bars. They turned out absolutely delicious!
Some things I love about this recipe:
- You need just one bowl to make them.
- The batter can be ready in the time it takes to heat up the oven.
- This recipe doesn’t contain any flour in it, so it is easily made gluten free (use gluten free oats).
- It is egg free, which is key for me to enjoy it!
- It hardly has any butter or oil, so the fat grams are pretty small for a baked treat.
- The chocolate drizzle! I used white chocolate, but choose the chocolate you prefer.
- This recipe uses simple, everyday ingredients you likely have in your pantry.
The Macros
After calculating the macros for this recipe, it came out to be 154 calories for around a 50 gram bar (makes 9 bars total) and 4F/29C/1.9P. And those are some pretty awesome macros for a pumpkin treat. Just think, a few ingredients and some bake time is all that is separating you from celebrating the flavors of the season!
Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 187 g canned pumpkin puree (3/4 cup)
- 75 g brown sugar (6 tablespoons)
- 50 g granulated sugar (4 tablespoons)
- 17 g butter, melted (1 and 1/4 tablespoon)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 +1/8 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 128 grams old fashioned oats, or quick oats (~1 and 1/2 cup)
- 45 g white chocolate chips (3 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8X8 pan with cooking spray.
- Melt butter in a medium microwave safe bowl (about 15-30 seconds). Combine pumpkin, sugars, butter, and vanilla until completely smooth. Add in the baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt and stir until completely combined. Then add in the oats, and stir until well mixed. Note: If you would rather have your white chocolate chips in the batter than as a drizzle, fold them in now. You can increase the amount of chocolate chips to your liking, but keep in mind it will increase the macros, too!
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and evenly spread it out. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until edges are beginning to brown.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes.
- Then, melt the chocolate chips in a small microwavable bowl for 30 seconds in the microwave. Give it a good stir and then microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chips have all melted (it took me 45 seconds total for all of them to be melted). Pour the melted chocolate into a small sandwich bag. Clip a small corner off the bottom of the bag and use that to create a drizzle on top of the bars. Slice into 9 bars and enjoy! They also taste awesome out of the refrigerator!
Notes