These Paleo Pumpkin Bars are a fun and healthy way to enjoy fall baking season! Soft fudgy pumpkin blondies flavored with lots of pumpkin pie spices are topped with a honey cream cheese frosting for the ultimate fall themed pumpkin bars!
Who’s up for fudgy pumpkin bars with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting? You are going to absolutely love these bars!
The layer of cashew based cream cheese frosting is so thick and creamy that I almost decided to call them cheesecake bars, but the pumpkin layer is definitely more than a crust.
You have soft gooey pumpkin blondies that are sort of similar to my pumpkin spice latte bars, but without any espresso flavor. Just pumpkin spice goodness!
I love the combination of the sweet, warmly spiced pumpkin layer and the tangy rich cream cheese layer. It’s fall baking heaven!
What You Need to Make Paleo Pumpkin Bars
There are two components to these bars – the pumpkin layer and the cashew cream cheese frosting layer. Here’s what you’ll need to prepare the bars:
Pumpkin Bar Batter:
- blanched almond flour
- baking soda
- pumpkin pie spice
- ground cinnamon
- fine sea salt
- ghee, softened, or coconut oil
- pure maple sugar or coconut sugar
- pumpkin puree
- egg
- pure vanilla extract
Frosting:
- raw cashews
- coconut cream, chilled
- fresh lemon juice
- coconut oil, solid
- pure vanilla extract
- raw honey, or pure maple syrup
- fine sea salt
How to Make Paleo “Cream Cheese” Frosting
Making cashew cream cheese frosting is super simple and SO rewarding! It helps to use a powerful blender to get the frosting really smooth and silky. You’ll also want to make sure you soak the cashews in hot water for a couple of hours before beginning to make them blend easily with the rest of the ingredients.
Prepare the frosting first and chill for at least 2 hours before frosting the bars. You can also make the frosting a day in advance and chill overnight.
Place all the ingredients in a high speed blender (I used a Vitamix) and blend until smooth. This will take anywhere from 1-5 minutes depending on your blender.
Be patient and scrape down the sides as needed, and continue to blend until creamy. Once done, chill the frosting in the refrigerator until ready to use.
How to Make Paleo Pumpkin Bars
Preheat your oven to 350° F and line an 8 x 8” square baking pan with parchment paper on the bottom and up the sides.
In a mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer or whisk, cream together the ghee and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla. Mix until very smooth.
Stir or beat in the flour mixture until well combined, the batter should be thick. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the batter to the prepared pan, scraping the bowl and smoothing the batter evenly in the pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until just set in the center. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 3 hours or more, until completely cooled. After about an hour, you can chill in the refrigerator if you want to speed up the cooling.
Once the bars are completely cooled, spread the chilled frosting in the thick layer over the top. You can cut into squares to serve right away, or return to the refrigerator to chill.
How to Store Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Similarly to my carrot cake and spice cake, these bars are wonderful frosted and chilled overnight (covered) as well as served right away. Simply cut into squares before serving.
You can also freeze the bars, frosted and covered, and thaw in the refrigerator before cutting and serving. Although you might even want to enjoy them partially frozen as my kids love!
You can store the leftover bars covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
I hope you’re ready for a delicious, good for you pumpkin treat! Grab your ingredients because it’s time to bake – let’s go!
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting {Paleo, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting {Paleo, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
Ingredients
Pumpkin Bar Batter:
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup ghee softened
- 3/4 cup pure maple sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews soaked in warm water for at least 2 hours drained, rinsed, and gently dried
- 1/2 cup coconut cream chilled
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp coconut oil solid
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 Tbsp raw honey or pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
Cream Cheese Frosting:
-
Prepare the frosting first and chill for at least 2 hours before frosting the bars. You can also make the frosting a day in advance and chill overnight.
-
Place all ingredients in a high speed blender (I used a Vitamix) and blend until smooth. This will take anywhere from 1-5 minutes depending on your blender. Be patient and scrape down the sides as needed, and continue to blend until creamy. Once done, chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Pumpkin Bar Batter
-
Preheat your oven to 350° F and line an 8 x 8” square baking pan with parchment paper on the bottom and up the sides.
-
In a mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt.
-
In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer or whisk, cream together the ghee and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla. Mix until very smooth.
-
Stir or beat in the flour mixture until well combined, the batter should be thick. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the batter to the prepared pan, scraping the bowl and smoothing the batter evenly in the pan.
-
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until just set in the center. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 3 hours or more, until completely cooled. After about an hour, you can chill in the refrigerator if you want to speed up the cooling.
-
Once the bars are completely cooled, spread the chilled frosting in the thick layer over the top. You can cut into squares to serve right away, or return to the refrigerator to chill. Similarly to my carrot cake and spice cake, these bars are wonderful frosted and chilled overnight (covered) as well as served right away. Simply cut into squares before serving. You can also freeze the bars, frosted and covered, and thaw in the refrigerator before cutting and serving.
-
Store leftover bars covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo Pumpkin Dessert Recipes? Try One of These!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies
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Stephanie Olson says
This looks delish! Do you have suggestions on a different frosting to make with these? We have cashew allergies in our house.
Karen says
Detoxinista.com has a delicious vegan “cream cheese” frosting recipe using a white sweet potato which would work well with these.
Stephanie Olson says
Thank you!
Hannah says
So excited to make these! I have loved your recipes/site for a while now. Thank you for the consistent recipes! 🙂
Colbi says
Would these work egg-free? I’m sensitive to eggs which has made paleo baking a huge challenge. I’m craving pumpkin going into Fall and would love to find a pumpkin recipe that is both paleo and egg-free. Thanks!!
Chris says
Baking these right now and my entire apartment smells like pumpkin pie…. I already know this is going to be a hit!
Melodee says
Should this work with flax egg?
Amanda says
Is there a replacement for coconut oil in the frosting?
Hannah Moriarty says
These are amazing! Followed the recipe exactly. Excited to try them partially frozen as mentioned. Kids love them, and husband said “this is my favorite pumpkin dessert so far”. Thank you for making such fun and delicious recipes I can feel good about.
Erica A Honaker says
Made these yesterday. Added chocolate chips and had to do a traditional cream cheese frosting because I didn’t have any cashews. A little more sugar than I wanted (because of the frosting substitute), but they’re tasty! Always love your recipes. Baking and otherwise!
Konnie says
Any other flour we can use besides almond? Thanks in advance.
Denice says
Made these today and they taste heavenly. My frosting is a bit runny though, did I do something wrong? Did anyone else have this happen?
Still taste wonderful… just a little messy 😝
Laura says
Made these and they had no flavor
May says
This recipe was soooo good. Even my boyfriend [who is a picky eater when it comes to healthy food] loved them! Tastes like carrot cake & cream cheese frosting in my opinion. Not hard to make either!
Michelle Delgadillo says
I made the bars today & the frosting yesterday. My frosting didn’t come out thick like yours in the pictures show. I followed your recipe to a T. My ingredients were almost the same. I used 3/4 honey(ran out) and filled in with maple syrup. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or… what. It smelled so nice when baking & I will be tasting it all tomorrow! Any suggestions would be helpful! Thank you & Happy Thanksgiving!
Kristen says
I made these for thanksgiving and they were delicious! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Nicole says
Hi! I haven’t made these yet, but am wondering about the number of eggs used. Some of your other pumpkin cake/muffin recipes call for 3-4 eggs. Wondering why this one only calls for one, and what would happen if I increased the number of eggs to this recipe. Thank you!!
Nicole says
I used agave as the sweetener for the batter instead of maple or coconut sugar and it turned out really good, I just had to double the baking time to about 40 mins. I personally find the frosting to be a little overpowering so I think you could make half the amount or double the cake recipe. But this was a tasty treat! Thanks!
judith says
I just did the recipe!! my frosting wasn’t that white (maybe because I used coconut sugar instead of mapple syrup ) and it became super hard because certainly too cold, so it was verry difficult to apply over the cake, but appart from that it is super delicious :p and Just for information in case someone read my comments, I use a cake moule (approx 30cmx8cm), so there is 10 portion ( 370 kcal – 420 kcal ) and I am really sure I could have use only half the ingredient for the frosting because there was a looot of it, the frosting on top is as thick as the cake itself, so half would be ok I guess =D !! Love ur blog and recipes and, sorry I am french so my english might not be perfect lol
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Jen says
Absolutely amazing!! A perfect balance of flavors, including the spicy warmth that feels like fall. I added some almond extract to the frosting (why not?) and I boiled the cashews because I was in a rush. Came out perfect. I even had a little extra cream cheese to put on my paleo bread for breakfast or mix with fruit. This is going into my recipe book! A new fall favorite.
StellaG says
These are AMAZING! Probably in my top 3 desserts of all time. My family couldn’t get enough of it and I was sad that I had to share it. No one would know it’s GF and DF. Strong spices and it truly tastes like fall!
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