Vegan + Gluten Free

Grandmom’s Pumpkin Bars

Fall, we’ve been waiting for you. These pumpkin bars came straight out of my grandmother’s recipe box. While they may not be the “healthiest” recipe in my repertoire, they are vegan and gluten free!

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Tasting Notes

Cinnamon | Pumpkin | Cream cheese

Pairing Suggestions

Friday mornings | Game night | Oldies playlist

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Why I Love These Pumpkin Bars

There’s something so right about pairing cream cheese frosting and pumpkin spice. I think it’s akin to a pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream, or pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls with extra cream cheese icing. The two are a match made in heaven.

I found this recipe from my dad’s mom’s recipe box – my grandmother never shied away from a decadence in whatever she cooked, especially in dessert. She kept her freezer stocked with BEST shortbread cookies, and there was never a hint of “low fat” or “low carb” diet culture when we were around. I think that anti-diet mentality made a huge difference, honestly. The dose makes the poison, so you should never be afraid to treat yourself.

We love a good, thick frosting layer over here so that’s exactly what this recipe calls for! Just be sure to make sure the bars are fully cooled before spreading the frosting on top – a mistake I made for the first (and last) time on this recipe!

Usually pumpkin bars will call for eggs, but we’ll swap in vegan yogurt instead. You’d never know the difference. The pumpkin bar texture is outrageously fluffy and moist – all thanks to the oil, pumpkin, yogurt and a slight adjustment to the flour ratio.

Ingredients for Grandma’s Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin: I know there are slightly cheaper equivalents out there, but we always used Libby’s canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)

Flour: for a gluten-free cake, we’re using Bob’s Red Mill gluten free 1:1 baking blend.

Oil: a neutral flavored vegetable oil gives this cake plenty of moisture without weighing down the crumb

Yogurt: just a touch of plant based yogurt, I love to use kite hill’s plain almond milk yogurt!

Sugar: the classic white sugar. Maybe one day I’ll look into a refined sugar free version of this recipe, but for now, I’m quite happy with the way it turns out with plain old white sugar*

*If you follow a strict vegan lifestyle, be sure to purchase a brand like Florida Crystals that does not use bone char in their refining process

Spices: this recipe calls for cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.

Baking soda + powder: to lift everything above into fluffy, delicious cake bars!

Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Frosting

I love a good cream cheese frosting. There’s really no better frosting, in my opinion. Except maybe a torched meringue. Maybe. For the cream cheese frosting in this recipe, we need three main ingredients:

Cream cheese: I specifically use Kite Hill’s almond milk cream cheese for my frostings because the color is a nice, clean bright white (which is not always the case when it comes to plant based dairy alternatives). If you are not vegan, feel free to use regular cream cheese.

Powdered sugar: powdered sugar both sweetens + stabilizes the cream cheese frosting.

Plant milk: you’ll only need a teeny bit of plant milk to get the icing thinned enough to blend easily

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