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.
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!
Jenn says
These are baking RIGHT NOW! I seriously started as soon as I got the email with this recipe. I was searching last night for a yummy pumpkin treat. Perfect timing! I used almond flour instead. And I did use real, roasted pumpkin. I can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
Emma says
Coconut flour and almond flour do not at all work the same way. Coconut flour soaks up a BUNCH of liquid, and the egg provides that. If you are using almond flour I would suspect that you need more flour, and less egg. The cakey nature of the bar in the picture is due to the coconut flour.
robyn M says
@Jenn, have you used coconut flour often? i think it really takes some getting used to as there isn’t really anything else like it. coconut flour is so dense it has to have that amount of eggs as it sucks up liquid crazy fast. almond flour and coconut flour can never be used interchangeably without adjusting the entire recipe. i think elana has a pumpkin bar recipe that uses almond flour on the blog.
Jenn says
Thanks for that feedback! I do use coconut flour quite often. In fact, I like that it’s cheaper! I just thought coconut along with pumpkin sounded a bit odd. But you might be right…perhaps it would have turned out more cakey had I not changed the recipe and used almond flour instead. :-/ I’ll try it again with cocnut flour. But I must add that it still tastes amazing – even though it’s spongy. It made the chocolate chips rest on the bottom of the pan so it made for a chocolate crust of sorts. YUM!
Sam says
I made this last night. I used coconut flour and mine tired out just like Jenn described. My batter was extremely watery and after baking, it was spongy and all the chocolate was on the bottom. I could have baked a bit longer but it was starting to crust around the edges. I like them and will still eat them but they didn’t turn out as cakey as the pic.
Lisa Stafford says
Coconut flour and almond flour will produce much different results. If you want your bars to look like Elana’s, I think it would be best not to make substitutions. If you change the recipe, you change the results.
Krista says
I too was coming back to see why that photo looks so much different than my eggy batch. I just made this and we like them well, but it’s very eggy and spongy. I will try again using another recipe or cutting back an egg at least.
rachel says
Funny, I made my first batch of the season of the old pumpkin bar recipe (https://elanaspantry.com/pumpkin-bars/) with added chocolate and 1/4 cup of honey instead of 1/2 a cup of agave just last night. SO yummy. These look great too.
Alyssa says
Those look amazing and soo incredibly simple! I think these are going into my Thanksgiving dessert repertoire!
Amy says
Do you think you could use “flax eggs” as a substitute for the eggs in this recipe?
Mary says
I have successfully subbed flax gel in many, many recipes. Unfortunately, it does NOT work well when coconut flour is the only flour. For some reason, coconut flour just loves eggs! I successfully use coconut flour as one of a few gluten free flours mixed together in vegan baking. When you make a flour blend, you can do just fine with flax gel instead of egg. But it just doesn’t turn out well when coconut flour is used solo, without real eggs.
If you do try it eggless, ground chia seed might be a better place to begin. I use ground chia successfully in bar recipes, including a few of my own recipes that were inspired by Elana’s almond butter brownies.
If you are set on flax gel, you might do better with a non-Paleo blend of flours. Coconut, tapioca, buckwheat, sorghum, and millet combine beautifully, and work great with flax gel. But again, that will only work for you if Paleo is not a priority.
Good luck in your substitutions!
Katie Marquez says
My son is allergic to eggs, so we substitute flax seed “eggs” in many of Elana’s recipes with success. I agree though, it just doesn’t work as nicely with coconut flour. …I don’t often try with anything over 2 eggs either. Though her coconut bars came out nicely (but that is a mix of coconut and almond flours). All in all, thanks for the chia seed tip. I’ve been meaning to get some and try ’em out!
leanna says
i’ve heard flax goes rancid when you cook it. i would make an egg substitute out of chia seeds and water. makes a great gel/egg like consistency.
Dana says
Flax goes rancid when you *grind* it and then leave it ground without doing anything with it. (I never buy flax meal. It grinds just fine in a coffee grinder, way easier than nuts.) But if there is saturated fat in the recipe, and you grind flax, the sat-fat will protect the flax oil to a certain extent. Just don’t leave the bars uneaten for very long, or freeze them if you want to save them for longer.
KarenW says
Thanks, Patricia!
andrea says
Love this recipe!
KarenW says
Tell me about buying and cooking pumpkin, please. I want to try, but need some encouragement. Thanks!
Patricia says
Please read her previous post about roasting pumpkins. I personally buy it in a can now because I do not have time for this, but I agree with her that it is so much better. I used to freeze it every fall for the rest of the year.
https://elanaspantry.com/how-to-roast-a-pumpkin-in-10-steps/
leanna says
i used a kabocha squash and it turned out fantastic. any of the sweet winter squashes would work, like a delicata or even butternut.
Jen says
I love all things pumpkin, too! I believe these are going to be our weekend dessert. Friday night is usually family night and it’s fun to try out new desserts!
Thanks for another winner-
Jen
Heather J says
These are baking right now! I made a few substitutions:
Used canned (organic) butternut squash puree
Maple syrup instead of honey
Pumpkin pie spice instead of just cinnamon
Used only 3 eggs
Added 1 tsp vanilla extract
So far the bake time is more than suggested. I just checked after 35 mins and it was still not set.
Will post later, once my batch has cooled!
Christie says
Some things to think about in terms of your substitutions and bake time. The eggs will help it set up, so cutting back on those may or may not work as you want it to. The maple syrup is more liquidy than the honey, so that may add to the length of time in the oven. Squash purees, whether made from scratch or from a can, can vary in moisture content, which could also affect the bake time.
Of course, ovens also vary.
Love your idea of adding vanilla. LOVE vanilla added to just about everything.
Donna says
Could I possibly use coconut palm sugar (granulated) as a honey substitution without affecting the taste/texture in a negative way! I want to honor the integrity of your recipe!..Thanks for offering such an exquisite paleo-friendly answer to my autumn/pumpkin craving!
Heather J says
I was anticipating a longer bake time since I used canned puree and maple syrup, which tend to be more liquidy than fresh puree/honey. I set my timer for 30 mins, as the recipe suggested, then checked every 5 minutes after that. I baked the batch for 40 mins but I think they could have used another 5.
However! These bars are DELICIOUS! I loved the additional chocolate :)
Vanilla goes into almost everything I bake! :)
Lisa says
Thank you so much for sharing the results you had with substitutions.
Boulder Mom says
So good to know that you CAN use pumpkin puree! Was excited to see this recipe pop up on Facebook, but not so excited when I saw that it said you can’t use canned pumpkin. What can I say, I’m lazy. ;)
emily says
This is my go-to recipe for anything! School functions, pot luck, breakfast, etc!
I have always used canned pumpkin for this recipe! I also add 1/4 teaspoon allspice and nutmeg. It adds a little more Thanksgiving/pumpkin pie spice taste that my family just loves!
Heather J says
Looks like 1/3 cup each of coconut flour and honey
Patricia says
Ok. That makes sense. I didn’t even notice the honey. Thanks!