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!
Elisabeth says
We have made these several times now and love them.
I followed the recipe exactly minus one egg. I don’t know why, but for many of Elanas bread/muffin/bar recipes I need to subtract an egg otherwise I end up with an eggy mess. I almost always use Organic Valley Large eggs, maybe that’s the reason.
Also, these baked at 350 for 30min and then I turned them down to 325 for another 10min to keep the edges from burning.
Thanks for another yummy one, Elana!
Michelle says
Hi, I halved the recipe and made this today – very tasty! I cut up a couple squares of an 80% dark chocolate bar and used a few drops of stevia instead of the honey. At 20 mins, they still looked wet so I put them in for 5 more and they were perfectly cooked.
Question – I was on the Dagoba site looking for an ingredient listing and was going to email them when I couldn’t find it. Up popped the Hershey’s site when I clicked the contact us button. Is Dagoba another small company purchased by a megacorporation?
Jill says
It’s a year too late but in regards to Dagoba, yes. They were bought out by Hershey’s
Susannah says
Do you have an alternative to Coconut Flour that would work?
I really want to try these, but coconut flour is not for me.
Thanks,
S
Amber says
Just wanted to let you know that I have made these three times in the last week! I am addicted! Thanks for developing and sharing such a yummy pumpkin recipe!
Joan says
Made these last night. I used canned pumpkin and added 1 tablespoon of additional coconut flour and they turned out great. Very tasty and gobbled up quick.
Melissa says
I made these tonight and they were amazing! Definitely needed more cooking time though.
Kristen says
I nearly doubled the flour both times I made these bars. I’ve made them with both coconut & almond flour. I just felt the batter was too thin. They turned out great both times. Did anyone else notice this?
Nichole H says
I can’t wait to try this! One of my latest food sensitivities includes pumpkin so I’m glad you tried an alternative squash. This fall was beginning to look pretty dreary. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us!
Robin says
A new family favorite! I have already made two double batches in the last three days, and will likely be making them again this week. I doubled the recipe using 1 can of organic canned pumpkin and used both raisins and chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup each for the double batch). Baked in a 13×9 pan a little longer than specified (likely due to the pan size). So yummy! Thanks for the wonderful paleo/primal recipes!
Emma says
I made these (complete with roasted pumpkin) for a family get together yesterday and they were a hit! I had run out of coconut oil so I used grapeseed oil instead, but otherwise stuck to the ingredients exactly. The baking time was a little longer that specified, perhaps because of my substitution. They turned out moist, very flavourful, and the whole batch got eaten in short order. Will be making this one again for sure! Thanks, Elana!