Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars

November 3, 2017 // 2 Comments »

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These vegan and gluten-free, Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars are made with just a few simple ingredients and are the perfect quick snack for Fall mornings. All you need to make them is oats, dates, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. So easy! Dates provide natural sweetness and hints of caramel that pair beautifully with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Try cutting them in half and making an almond butter or coconut butter sandwich, or warming and topping with coconut whipped cream or non-dairy yogurt. However you enjoy them you’ll love simplicity of these healthy baked oatmeal bars.

As Simple as Possible

I like to keep my recipes as simple as possible because I don’t know about you guys but when I’m browsing cookbooks or recipe on Pinterest, if the ingredients list is too long I’m like, see ya! To be honest, I’m lazy, and pretty cheap when it comes to ingredients and sometimes I need baked pumpkin pie oatmeal bars like yesterday.

There were a lot of ingredients I thought about adding to these: ground flax, almond butter, chocolate chips and chia seeds all crossed my mind but when it came down to it, I knew the recipe would work and still taste delicious with just a few basic ingredients. I also like to keep my recipes as accessible as possible, meaning you would typically have the ingredients on hand already and if not, they’d be easy to find.

So these bars are nothing fancy, nothing elaborate and nothing decadent. They’re a basic, healthy, functional, wholesome snack made with just 4 simple ingredients. Now, if you want…and I’m sure some days I will too (hello, chocolate chips), you can go ahead and take these up an notch with additional add-ins.

Here are my suggestions.

Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Bars: Optional Add-Ins

1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds
a few spoonfuls of almond butter
1/2 cup raisins, cranberries or chopped dried fruit
1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/2 cup chia seeds
any other combination of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut or chocolate up to about 1/2 cup

More Baked Oatmeal Bars

For more baked oatmeal bar recipes, check out these other two options:

Baked Strawberry Oatmeal Protein Bars – just fruit, oats and protein powder
Baked Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars – made with banana, dates and chocolate chips

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Options

I usually use prepared pumpkin pie spice as I find it so much easier than adding cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice to all my pumpkin recipes. However, pumpkin pie spice is really easy to make, so you can always make a large batch and use that if you don’t feel like purchasing it prepared.

For a Batch of Pumpkin Pie Spice

To make a batch of pumpkin pie spice to use in this recipe, combine 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg, 1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice and 1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves and then use 2 tsp of that mixture.

Or Add the Spices Individually

You can also just add the spices individually to the recipe, in which case, use 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice and 1/4 tsp ground cloves. If you’re missing one of those spices, don’t worry about it too much, just add a little extra cinnamon and you’re good to go.

Make Them Extra Sweet

To sweeten these bars, I used 1 tightly packed cup of dates, finely chopped and soaked in hot water. To soak them, just place them in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, let sit for 15 minutes then drain. I like using dates an unrefined, natural sweetener since they add fibre and nutrition along with their natural sweetness and caramel flavour.

The dates did not result in a super sweet bar so if you want the bars to be a bit sweeter I would recommended adding about 10-20 drops of organic liquid stevia to bump up the sweetness.

Fun Ways to Enjoy These Bars

These bars are awesome on their own but if you want to take them a step further, try this:

cut them in half and make a little mini-sandwich with almond butter, tahini or coconut butter
warm them up and top with coconut whipped cream or non-dairy yogurt – hello healthy pumpkin pie!
crumble them over a smoothie bowl or my Pumpkin Spice Latte Smoothie
top them with a dollop of almond butter, a slice of banana and a sprinkle of coconut
crumble them and make a layered parfait with coconut yogurt or chia seed pudding
melt some dairy-free chocolate and spread evenly over the bars before cutting for an added chocolate layer

Those are just a few ideas! What other ways can you come up with to enjoy these bars??

Nutritional Details

These bars are just 99 calories each with just 1.3 grams of carbs and just 1.2 grams of fat. Each bar contains 2.6 grams of protein and 2.8 grams of fiber. Thanks to the pumpkin, they’re an excellent source of vitamin A.