Healthy Pumpkin Pie Bars

Healthy Pumpkin Pie Bars are the best healthy pumpkin dessert! A fun twist on a classic fall favorite! Paleo friendly and gluten-free.

Prep Time10

Cook Time45

Total Time55

Servings: bars

Calories: 252kcal

Ingredients

Crust

¼ cup ghee melted and cooled
1 egg
½ cup coconut sugar
1 cup almond flour
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon salt

Filling

15 ounces pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
2 large eggs
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon all spice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. We recommend a glass or light aluminum pan over dark nonstick pan to prevent the crust from getting brown while baking.
Mix all of the crust ingredients together with a fork. The mixture will be a smooth dough, but a little looser than traditional dough.
Moisten your hands with water and spread it out into the pan.
Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while you prepare the filling.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Pour into the parbaked crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until no longer jiggly.
Cool completely then cover with plastic wrap. You want the plastic wrap to touch the top of the pie bars and make a nice seal. This helps a skin not to form on your pie.
Refrigerate for 7-8 hours or over night.
Serve chilled with coconut whipped cream, powdered sugar and a dust of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Video

Notes

Baking pan: This recipe was tested in both glass and metal baking dishes. Metal conducts heat far better than glass so it got done quicker. You’ll also notice some cracking if you bake it past the just set stage. This is fine and doesn’t affect the flavor at all.

Flour: I don’t recommend other flours for the crust, especially coconut flour. The crust is a tried and true formula of almond and tapioca. The tapioca provides a binder along with the egg. We tested this with coconut flour and the bars fell flat.

Eggs: You can't substitute eggs in this recipe.

Ghee: Ghee was used for flavor. We don't recommend coconut oil for a swap for two reasons -you don’t get that cookie flavor if you use it, and it also is really greasy. Grass fed butter, regular butter (if not paleo) are all fine subs for the ghee.

Maple Syrup: We haven't tried substituting maple syrup for honey, but I think it might work. I can't be sure without testing it!

Coconut Sugar: The coconut sugar is swappable 1:1 with brown sugar.

Doubling the recipe: I haven't tried doubling this recipe but I'm sure it would work in a 9x13 pan.

Spices: You can replace the spices with 1 tablespoon of regular pumpkin pie spice.

Nutrition