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!
Kristin says
I am wondering if anyone has used the vitamix in place of a good processor for elana’s recipes? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Conni says
I made it with Trader Joe’s organic canned pumpkin and it was great!
Queen Jelly Bean says
Thanks Connie – I have a can sitting here and thought about trying to use it tomorrow morning. Thanks so much for confirming that it worked for you :-]
Maria says
Hi, these bars are really tasty, does anybody know if they freeze well? Thanks
sara says
I made these tonight- w. fresh roast butternut squash– and I started eating right from the pan w. a spoon… ummm ;-) they don’t look fluffy but they taste very light almost like souffle… they took 40 min to cook. I added extra choc chips. Yum. thank :=) smile
Malky says
Is there any way i can use the cans of pumpkin in this recipe as i’m looking to use them up thanks !
Malky
Beth says
Yes, I used canned pumpkin in this recipe all the time. Just increase your bake time. 40-45 minutes works best for me, but check them at 30.
Lin says
I’m so pleased you’ve used honey in this recipe. I’m extremely allergic to agave, and I follow a paleo diet. Now I’ll have a yummy seasonal treat without compromising my health in any way.
Thank you.
Donna says
I don’t know what I did wrong but the batter was very liquidy & they didn’t turn out so good
Elana says
Donna, unfortunately this is the issue when canned pumpkin is used :-)
Ellen says
I’m going to use organic canned pumpkin. I’m allergic to eggs so I’ll use duck eggs. I’ll use one less, probably, because duck eggs are bigger. I’m also going to try these with organic coconut sugar to cut carbs. I like pumpkin pie spice so I will use that. I also am allergic to cocoa beans so I think I will try some diced up dates instead. Or maybe carob chips if they are dairy free. I’m looking forward to these this weekend!
Denise says
How did the canned pumpkin work out?
Kirsty Chaignon says
Wait..what? It doesn’t work with canned pumpkins but I’m reading you’ve not tried it? :/ I don’t have time to do a pumpkin from scratch but I’m gonna go buy some organic canned and give it a go. I can see how the ‘from scratch’ would undoubtedly taste better, but if it means I can’t have some today because I can’t roast a pumpkin, then Ima gonna try me some with the canned & see how it works out! :)
Denise says
How did the canned pumpkin turn out? I have plenty of canned pumpkin, but don’t have fresh, and I’m not going to buy one just to make this recipe a few times a year. That would be a seasonal recipe for the fall.
Conni says
I used Trader Joe’s organic canned pumpkin and it turned out great!
Rebecca Kendrick says
Can you make this with just egg yokes? My son is allergic to egg whites in addition to his other food allergies.