This is by far one of my favorite fall dessert recipes. These pumpkin bars are easy to whip up and produce soft, moist and slightly dense spiced pumpkin bars (or cakey-bars are what I call them) topped with a pillowy layer of cream cheese frosting – the perfect ratio of cake to frosting as my hubby puts it and that’s because these bars bake up in a thin jellyroll pan – another reason to love them as they are great to make for a crowd. One jelly roll pan can be sliced and served up for any fall gathering. I love to eat these bars chilled and recommend chilling them for 30 minutes before serving – they get even more dense and moist as they chill similar to carrot cake and I just can’t get enough of them. If you are looking for a tasty and simple fall pumpkin spice recipe to try make sure to put these pumpkin bars on your list!
Why You are Going to Love These Pumpkin Bars:
- Easy to make with pantry ingredients and no stand mixer, hand mixer or electric mixer required (if you have one and wish to use it you can but a bowl and whisk can work here too) – just whisk stir and bake
- The texture of these bars is fabulous – cakey but moist and slightly dense and have the perfect ratio of bar to frosting
- Bars are thinner than cake and bake up a lot faster – quicker baking time equals quicker in your tummy – always a bonus!
- These bars are loaded with all the pumpkin spice flavour you could want in a fall recipe – of course you could always add more so feel free to adjust spice levels to suit
What are Pumpkin Bars?
Pumpkin bars are essentially pumpkin cake except although they are considered more of a cake (they do have a cakey texture) they are a little more moist then a sheet cake and are also made in a thinner sheet pan – more specifically in a jelly roll pan. So the batter bakes up thinner than a regular or standard cake and the pieces slice like bars from the jelly roll pan.
Easy Pumpkin Bars Recipe Ingredients:
One thing I love about this pumpkin bars recipe apart from their irrisistible pumpkin spice flavor is that you can make them with simple pantry ingredients. Here is a list of those ingredients and some information about them but the full measurements are in the recipe card below.
- Pumpkin: Use an entire standard 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin puree. I know you guys appreciate that – although I find it super easy to freeze leftover pumpkin puree if you only have one of those large cans of pumpkin puree ( a standard 15 ounce/398 ml can is approx 1½ cups of pumpkin puree). Using homemade pure pumpkin puree is fine but canned is really preferred because the moisture in the canned stuff is consistent – not always the case in homemade
- Flour: all purpose flour is what I use but you can use a good all purpose gluten free 1-1 flour here too which I find when used in these bars yields an even more moist and dense pumpkin bar
- Baking Powder, Baking Soda & Salt: to leaven and lift cake/bars and balance flavours
- Spices: I chose to use ground cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice because I always have it on hand but if you don’t what is a substitution for pumpkin pie spice? I recommend making your own by blending ground Ginger, Cloves, Allspice & Nutmeg – approx ½ teaspoon of each or adjust amounts to taste
- Eggs: make sure they are room temperature so that they incorporate well into the batter
- Sugar: I use a blend of both brown sugar and granulated sugar for these bars
- Oil: I used canola oil for this cake but feel free to use olive oil or coconut oil. Just rememeber that the bars will pick up any falvour from the oil you use
- Vanilla: even though this is a spiced cake vanilla brings out the best of all flavours in any baked good
- For the Frosting: Butter, Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar/Confectioners Sugar, Vanilla and a pinch of salt are what I use – feel free to add a pinch of spice to it too maybe some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. The frosting is optional but a delicious spread for the top of these bars – otherwise serve plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar.
- Optional Add Ins: Chocolate chips, chopped nuts and even raisins
These bars are easy to make and require very little effort – here are the simple steps involved in making these bars:
It’s best to use a 10x15x1 inch jelly roll pan for pumpkin bars. If you don’t have a jelly roll pan, you can also use a 9×13 baking pan. The bars will need to bake for an additional 5 minutes or more and will be thicker very similar to my Pumpkin Sheet Cake
