My nut-free Paleo Pumpkin Bars are super easy to throw together and fabulous for your Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations. We love them so much that we make them all year round. That’s because I’m a total pumpkin-a-holic!
I love all things pumpkin and squash, including these velvety nut-free Paleo Pumpkin Bars. Baking with the odd shaped, brightly colored vegetables known as winter squash is one of my favorite things! Pumpkin itself is a type of winter squash, and I use a variety of winter squash in my pumpkin recipes.
For these Paleo Pumpkin Bars I chose roasted acorn squash. You could just as easily select sugar pumpkin, a smaller, denser, tastier version of the more ubiquitous pumpkins used for jack-o’-lanterns. These Paleo Pumpkin Bars would also be great with other types of squash such as kabocha, butternut, buttercup, carnival, or delicata.
If you’re wondering how to choose a winter squash or pumpkin, look for deep saturated colors and make sure the skin is thick and clean. You don’t want to buy winter squash with dents, scuffs or cracks. Finally, check that the squash has a hard, cork-like stem.
I am often asked if canned pumpkin will work in my pumpkin recipes. For these Paleo Pumpkin Bars it will substantially change the recipe and you will need to alter your baking time quite a bit, and possibly make other changes to the recipe as well.
Fresh roasted pumpkin or another type of fresh roasted winter squash will get you the results you’re looking for with this recipe! To help you out, I have prepared a simple tutorial called How To Roast a Pumpkin in 10 Easy Steps.
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Paleo Pumpkin Bars
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup fresh roasted pumpkin, or winter squash, will not work with canned pumpkin
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon
- Pulse in eggs, pumpkin, honey, and oil until well combined
- Stir in half of the chocolate chips by hand
- Transfer batter to an 8 x 8 inch baking dish, sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over top
- Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes
- Cool and serve
I love the combination of chocolate and pumpkin and so have used chocolate chips in this gluten-free pumpkin bar recipe. If you don’t like chocolate, you can simply omit it or use raisins instead.
If cooking with fresh roasted pumpkin is not your thing, try my paleo pumpkin recipes that use canned pumpkin!
Katie says
These are so good. I didn’t have chocolate chips so I frosted them with chocolate frosting instead, and also used butternut squash instead of pumpkin, and they turned out great.
Elana says
Katie, thanks for letting me know they turned out great!
Denise says
I absolutely love this pumpkin bar and so does everyone that tries it. I have been making it for years. I use the chocolate chips in it also. Making it tonight for pot luck tomorrow night with some friends. I just wanted to say Thank you and show appreciation for the wonderful recipe!
Elana says
Denise, thanks so much for letting me know that everyone who tries these pumpkin bars loves them! Big hugs to you and enjoy the potluck :-)
Molly says
I know this recipe is old, but I just had to comment on it anyway. I’ve been experimenting with coconut flour baked goods for the last three years or so but have never had much success. The pancakes, cakes, cookies, and scones I have made either tasted like eggs, were very grainy in texture, or were very dry. So, I tend to bake with almond flour, but lately I have been trying to limit my nut intake to see if that helps my skin clear up, so I tried this recipe. I had all of the ingredients, the recipe was easy to make, and the result was delicious! Finally something made with coconut flour that has a good texture and taste! I did make a few modifications. I used erithrytol instead of honey and I used canned pumpkin, but even with my substitutions, these surpassed my expectations. Thank you, Elana, for posting such creative and diverse recipes!
Elana says
Molly, I’m so glad that this was easy to make AND delicious!
CJ says
Great taste again, and I used cacao nibs instead of chocolate. It gave a good crunch.
Thank you!
I made four pumpkin recipes from you today (The pumpkin bread, this paleo pumpkin bar, the regular pumpkin bar, and the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies). Before I made the pumpkin pie and that is still my favourite :-).
Elana says
Thanks CJ!