They are the best fall dessert for vegan Thanksgiving or simply to serve as a tea cake in Autumn. I love the fall season, all the pumpkin spice flavors are so wonderful and this vegan pumpkin bars is perfect for pumpkin lovers. It’s also the easiest vegan pumpkin cake I’ve ever made. It bakes in less than 25 minutes, and the moist, fluffy pumpkin bars are even better than my vegan pumpkin bread. It’s probably the vegan vanilla frosting that makes all the difference, or simply the fact that they are thin, spongier, and fluffier than regular cake. So, let me take you through this easy fall pumpkin recipe.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make pumpkin bars are a few wholesome ingredients:
Ground Flaxseeds – This works as an egg replacer and binds the ingredients together. Lukewarm Water – To activate the flax egg. All-Purpose Flour – or white spelt. The recipe doesn’t work with almond flour or oat flour. Baking Powder and Baking Soda – To five it some rise. Pumpkin Puree – I am using pure canned pumpkin puree, which is 100% made from a blend of different pumpkins. This is not the same as pumpkin pie filling that is sweetened. In canned pumpkin puree, there’s no added oil or sugar, and that’s what you need for this pumpkin bar recipe. Soft Brown Sugar – Or coconut sugar, both work as well. Light Olive Oil or canola oil or eventually melted coconut oil, but preferably an oil with no strong flavor to enjoy the best pumpkin spice flavors. Almond Milk or any non-dairy milk you love, like oat milk, soy milk, or coconut milk. Vanilla Extract for taste. Cinnamon. Ginger, Allspice, Nutmeg – The mix of spices gives the bars the best fall flavors. Vegan Vanilla Frosting – This frosting recipe is very simple and basically made from vegan butter, powdered sugar, a splash of plant-based milk, and vanilla extract.
How To Make Vegan Pumpkin Bars
These vegan pumpkin bars also called vegan pumpkin cake bars are super simply to put together. The tricky part is to get a jelly roll pan or any rectangle pan close to a 10 inches x 15 inches in size.
Frosting Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin bars are normally frosted with a cream cheese frosting. Here, I am using my classic vegan vanilla frosting to frost the bars. You can use the recipe, swapping half the vegan butter for the same amount of softened vegan cream cheese.
Allergy Swaps
Below are some options to make this fall recipe with different ingredients if needed.
Nut-Free – Swap the almond milk for oat milk or soy milk. Gluten-Free – I didn’t try all-purpose gluten-free flour for this recipe. Usually, the recipe comes out dense and gummy if you use only gluten-free flour. Instead, I recommend using 3/4 of gluten-free all-purpose flour with 1/4 of almond flour. But again, this is a suggestion, and the result might be very different as all gluten-free flours are not equal. Flax Meal – You can replace the ground flaxseeds with the same amount of ground chia seeds or cornstarch.
Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about this pumpkin bar recipe.
