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!
Sally says
I baked these yesterday but had to use canned (organic!) pumpkin because of time constraints. I also doubled the recipe (used a whole 15 ounce can of pumpkin) and did not melt the coconut oil before adding it to the batter mix. Cooking time was 50 minutes or thereabouts; I wasn’t keeping a close track, but it had set in the middle when I tested it. They were a little more moist than I was expecting but sliced easily into bars and taste FABULOUS! Thank you Elana!
Jessica says
Has anyone tried subbing almond flour and have ratios to share? I’m looking for more calories (nursing mama) and didn’t have coconut flour on hand.
Elana says
Jessica, here’s a link to my Paleo Pumpkin Bread made with almond flour:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-pumpkin-bread/
Enjoy!
Elana
Emily says
Hey, has anyone substituted the coconut flour for almond flour? I have a ton of gluten free flour in my cabinet (including rice and almond) but no coconut flour. Should I be adding xantham gum if i do this? Thanks guys!
Elana says
Emily, here’s a link to my Paleo Pumpkin Bread recipe for you which uses almodn flour:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-pumpkin-bread/
Enjoy!
Elana
Allison says
Still enjoying these this morning with my coffee. I was dying to make these as soon as I saw the recipe. I love the coconut-y fragrance when they are baking. The combo of pumpkin, chocolate and faint hint of coconut make a tasty treat; which I have eaten as my breakfast this morning. I love the recipe as is but also think I will try the raisins next time and some additional spices for a completely different taste (sort of a two for one recipe that can go either way).
I was wondering whether anyone knows if these can be frozen.
Thanks Elana for another great way for me to stay gluten-free. I have really been struggling with this lately. This is a great addition to my gluten free recipes.
Rebeca @ The Average Parent says
OMgoodness. These are do delicious! I doubled the recipe and cooking time using the same size pan. So my bars are really thick, light and fluffy.
christine says
I have made Elana’s original punmkin bars dozens of times. I substitute honey and cut it down some and use more spices. Nuts, chopped dates and raisins are good additions. If you use dates, cut back even further on sweeteners or it can become cloyingly sweet, IMO.
this recipes looks awesome, too.
christine says
Wow! Is that supposed to be 1/3 cup coconut flour and 1/3 cup honey?
Lisa Stafford says
Yes. 1/3 cup each.
Shelby says
Should the coconut oil be completely melted before mixing? Will that change the consistency?
Lisa Stafford says
I usually preheat the oven and put a glass measuring cup in the oven with the coconut oil. As I gather and measure the other ingredients, the coconut oil is melting. Once it is melted, I get an accurate measurement and pour the excess back into the glass jar it’s stored in.
Sandra says
I made this recipe last night following the recipe exactly as written but am disappointed. It took nearly an hour to bake and still remains very very moist. I cannot slice it into bars like in the photo. I know that different brands of coconut flour yields different results, and my oven is a gas oven which is a more moist heat than an electric. I used Aloha-Nu flour. Has anyone else had this issue?
Erin says
I had a similar issue but did get this one to work for me. It took almost twice as long to bake than the recipe stated. Finally it set up well enough to cut into bars. At that point the edges were just starting to turn dark brown. They were fabulous all said and done but next time I will add a little more coconut flour and reduce honey slightly (very sweet bars). Perhaps my canned pumpkin was too moist. The bars were just a little more moist than I would ultimately want and didn’t rise quite as well as the picture.
At any rate, I WILL make these again because they were delightful! We topped them with Cinnamon Ginger Frosting (paleoparents dot com) and Oh my gosh. Yum. In fact today I am making a double batch of these in a 9×13 to share with friends.
Jill says
I used canned pumpkin, but all else the same. I also had to bake my pan longer than the recipe and they still were a little undercooked. They taste absolutely delish, just not quite done in the middle.
Elana says
Jill, as I mentioned in the recipe above, this won’t work with canned pumpkin :-)
Grace says
I had pretty much the same issues. I had to cook it for about 45 minutes total, and it was eggy and a bit soggy in the middle. I was disappointed with the overall outcome.
Elana says
Grace, this typically happens when canned pumpkin is used rather than roasted, as indicated in the recipe above.
Fiorella says
I was wondering if anyone has tried these AND Elana’s previous pumpkin bar recipe posted back in 2010 (https://elanaspantry.com/pumpkin-bars) and could comment on both. Trying to decide which one to try first :)
Allison R says
Not the answer you’re looking for exactly, as I haven’t tried the new recipe yet, but I have to say that I didn’t love her 2010 pumpkin bar recipe. And that’s saying a lot for me, because I have loved every recipe from Elana that I have ever tried. The 2010 bars were just OK and tasted overly eggy and not quite pumpkin-y enough. I’m super excited to try this recipe, though!
robyn M says
i haven’t tried the new recipe yet, but we do like the prior recipe (using almond flour). we usually use pure maple syrup or honey instead of the agave and sometimes add in chocolate chips. we’ve found they’re best to make a bit ahead and let them sit a couple hours before you plan to eat them; they set up better that way.
Lisa Stafford says
Has anyone found any chocolate chips that are truly Paleo? I don’t like the idea of using chocolate chips that have sugar added. We are also dairy free.
tracy says
i have discovered (through a friend) lily’s chocolate. it is in bars, not chips, but it is sweetened with stevia and erythritol. it definitely has a little aftertaste for those not used to stevia, but i think it’s delicious. texture is just like a hershey bar. i haven’t done it yet, but i figure you could just break it into chunks in lieu of chips. :) http://www.lilyssweets.com
e4hand says
You can make chocolate with honey. It’s pretty easy too and doesn’t have to be tempered. This is a GAPS recipe, hope it helps. http://ournourishingroots.com/simple-honey-sweetened-chocolate-and-gaps-chocolate-chips/
Krista says
Whole Foods carries ‘vegan’ semi-sweet chocolate chips and they are delicious and dairy free!
Heather J says
I’ve tried both. I preferred the pumpkin bars (old) over the Paleo pupmkin bars (new). I LOVE the addition of chocolate to the new ones but the texture is better in the almond flour (old) pumpkin bars. If I reduced the sweetener and added chocolate chips to the old recipe, I bet I would have the best of both worlds!