Healthy Pumpkin Bars

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Fall is my absolute favorite season! I live in Colorado so fall brings cooler, crisp evenings, changing leaves, and everything pumpkin! Healthy Pumpkin Bars are my favorite pumpkin treat. I make these pretty much every week in the fall. Great for breakfast, snack, or even dessert. They are super moist and flavorful. Sweetened with dates and maple syrup so they are not too sweet like other pumpkin treats.

Ingredients

• oat flour- old fashioned rolled oats, pulsed in a food processor or blender. To break down oats into a flour-like consistency. This replaces flour in this recipe. If gluten intolerant, make sure to buy certified gluten-free oats. Some oats may contain trace amounts of gluten while processing.
• pumpkin puree- 100% pumpkin puree from the can.
• Greek yogurt- you can substitute coconut milk yogurt or any kind of milk here.
• almond butter- you can substitute any kind of nut butter. I like the taste of the almond butter over peanut butter in this recipe.
• date paste- my easy date paste recipe or combine 5-6 dates with apple sauce in a food processor, pulse until smooth.
• unsweetened apple sauce- gives the bars more moisture and a slight sweetness.
• eggs
• maple syrup- 100% maple syrup. A healthier sweetener versus sugar.
• cinnamon- ground cinnamon pairs well with pumpkin.
• baking soda- a leaving agent to help the batter rise.
• vanilla extract- for flavor.

How to Make Healthy Pumpkin Bars

1. To make the oat flour, use a blender or food processor. Pour in old fashioned oats and pulse until fine. While I am already using the blender or food processor, I usually make more oat flour and store it in a Ziploc bag to use later. I also use oat flour in my Pear Flax Oat Bars and Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Muffins.
2. Combine oats, pumpkin, yogurt, almond butter, date paste, apple sauce, eggs, maple syrup, cinnamon, baking soda, and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix until all ingredients are well combined.
3. Pour mixture into a baking dish and bake until a toothpick comes out clean when poked through the middle (20-25 minutes).
4. Let cool. Slice into bars and serve.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Almond butter can be swapped for any nut butter.
• Greek yogurt can be swapped for other plain yogurt or coconut yogurt. It can also be swapped for any kind of milk or milk alternative.
• Puree a small apple in a food processor instead of using apple sauce, if needed.
• I have used a combination of almond flour and oat flour and it worked great!

How to make Date Paste

I have an easy Date Paste recipe

If you don’t want to make a large container of date paste another option is combining the apple sauce and 5-6 dates in a food processor. Pulse until dates are ground/chopped finer. Then incorporate into the rest of the ingredients.

Products Used

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Other Yummy Recipes to Try

• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Strawberry Rhubarb Coconut Crumble Bars
• Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread
• Pear Oat Bars