My Toffee Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Bar recipe seems to be the hit of the season so far on the blog. I’ve had quite a few questions about how to make the bars oil-free, so I figured it was a good opportunity to play around with the recipe. Pumpkin naturally lends moisture to baked goods and I’m happy to say it worked well as an oil replacement in this recipe. I’m also guessing the same amount of mashed banana might work too, but when in pumpkin season…#pumpkinallthethings! I added some pumpkin pie spices to enhance the pumpkin flavour. The result is a much lighter and softer/cake-y bar compared to the original recipe, but the upshot is that these feel light enough for a morning snack. Or at least I sure hope so because I’ve been nibbling away at them each morning when I try to decide what to make for my actual breakfast.
I know some of you also asked about a nut-free option, so I tried a couple versions subbing the almond flour. I didn’t create anything worthy of sharing yet (my trials using oat flour + arrowroot powder and sorghum flour were both drier than I would have liked). Maybe I would have better luck adapting the original recipe with coconut oil? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know if you had any success. I’ll also let you know if I test a nut-free version worth sharing!
My favourite way to enjoy these pumpkin bars is to spread some vegan butter on top (similar to how I love freshly baked muffins!). I guess that defeats the whole oil-free thing, but it sure is tasty. They would also be awesome with my Lightened Up Pecan Pumpkin Butter. I stashed a bunch of the squares in the freezer and found that they freeze well too.
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Pumpkin Oatmeal Anytime Squares
Yield
9-12 squares
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Soft and muffin-like in texture, these oil-free pumpkin oatmeal bars are light enough for breakfast and all your snacking needs.
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg: (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin purée
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt or pink Himalayan sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats, ground into a flour (Or use 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon oat flour)
- 3/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
- 3/4 cup almond flour (not almond meal)
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (for enhanced binding)
- 1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped
- 2 tablespoons mini non-dairy chocolate chips, for garnish
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
- Mix flax egg in a small bowl or mug and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the pumpkin and sugar with electric beaters until combined.
- Pour in the flax egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- Add the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and beat again.
- Finally add in the oat flour, rolled oats, almond flour, arrowroot flour, and pecans. Beat until combined.
- Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread out until smooth and even. The dough will be very sticky, but this is normal. I like to cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper and roll it with a pastry roller. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and press down.
- Bake for 15-19 minutes (I baked for 18 minutes), until lightly golden and firm to the touch. Be sure not to overbake.
- Place pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, lift out and place square directly on cooling rack for another 10-20 minutes, until cool. Slice and enjoy! The bars will crumble slightly if sliced warm, but they firm up nicely when cooled.
Tip:
Tips: 1) Instead of coconut sugar, you can try using Sucanat or natural cane sugar. Also, if you'd like a less sweet square you can try reducing the sugar a bit. 2) To make the freshly ground oat flour, add 3/4 cup rolled oats into a high speed blender. Blend on high until a fine flour forms. You can also simply use store-bought oat flour (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon should do it).
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
I just made these and I LOVE them. I substituted brown rice flour for the oat flour only because I didn’t feel like breaking out the food processor. Very nice. I love the cake-like consistency with the undertone of ginger. Well done. Thanks for the recipe!
Also, I left out the arrowroot because I didn’t have it — didn’t even need it! :)
Great recipe. I made it for an event at my daughter’s school, so it needed to be nut-free. I substituted a half and half mixture of coconut flour and tapioca starch (well, actually slightly more tapioca starch and slightly less coconut flour) and then needed to increase the moisture in the batter since coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid. So I added more pumpkin and a couple of spoonsful of apple sauce (just eye-balled these additions until I thought the batter was moist enough!). I also cut the sugar in half and added more chocolate chips – stirred a half-cup into the batter, then sprinkled some on top before baking. They turned out to be quite moist and delish! Love the fibre content in these!
These look great! I love pumpkin and oats. Do you think you could try to make oatmeal raisin cookie bars? I’ve been looking for recipes but I’ve only found granola bars or bakes oatmeal squares.
I have an almond intolerance, would you recommend subbing more oat flour? Another flour instead? Hazelnut flour perhaps?
This recipe was great. We were out of a some ingredients and substituted orange extract for vanilla, dried cranberries instead of chocolate chips and unsweetened applesauce for the flax egg. AMAZING! Thanks.
Made these tonight for my son to bring to class tomorrow for snack time. I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×13 pan. Very good! Just the right amount of sweetness. Will definitely be making these again.
I kept forgetting to get almond flour, so I just used almond meal. It still turned out great!
These squares are so delicious, it’s ridiculous how easily and relatively quickly they can be made!
On to another pumpkin recipe as i need to use the rest of the can!
Thank you for sharing!
These are so great!i love these bars! Seems like the recipe is very forgiving with all kinds of substitutions and variations. That is a great thing about your recipes. They are great as written, but allow for a lot of dietary substitutions. Thanks again for a great recipe!
Just made these this morning! They turned out absolutely delicious, I will for sure be making more in the near future!!!
Changes:
I used WW flour instead of almond because that’s what I had on hand.
Cornstarch instead of arrowroot flour.
Added some chocolate chips mixed in too just because :)
Splash or two of almond milk at the end because it seemed really dry.
I just made this recipe exactly as written with the exception of using chia instead of flax. It was awesome. I’ve also made the original recipe and I like both equally but I’ve been trying to take it easy on the oil. Thanks for the great recipe.
Try banana flour as a nut flour substitute …. I make my own (dehydrator) because I have to but you can buy it these days easily enough…. We have a multiple food allergy household (anaphylaxis) …so have had to be bloody-minded about ‘substititions’ …. Banana flour is my ‘go to’ flour for cookies & bars …especially where ‘chewiness’ is sought.
Wow these were so good! I used a tiny bit of coconut oil and I was so glad I did! I just have to add this recipe to my collection of favorites. Anything with pumpkin in it is yummy! Here is another of my favorite pumpkin recipes http://muffinparadise.com/easy-pumpkin-muffins/#BANANA_PUMPKIN_MUFFINS
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Angela,
quick side bar- I absolutely adore you and your recipes!!
But for real: I loved this recipe! The chocolate is the perfect way to make me look forward to eating a healthier snack than chips ;) I also take the leftover crumbs and put them over my almond yogurt.
But I wanted to ask you, is there any way I could modify this to make it a meal replacer? I’ve been doing TONS of traveling lately, and I get literally stuck sometimes between choosing between to fast food chains, and I hate it. I just want to make a batch of vegan meal replacer bars and be done with it. Do you have any suggestions for me?? I reached out to you specifically because I trust you are the one who would have the best answer!!
Oh my, these are divine! Thank you for all your hard work and wonderful recipes! I thoroughly enjoy your blog site!
Somebody slap me because I can NOT stop making and consuming these like an unstoppable force. This is by far the best healthy dessert recipe I’ve ever tried. I’ve made three batches in two days and these bars get snatched up by everyone who sees them! When I went to leave a party last night people were grabbing the last bars off the plate while I was leaving! I just have to tell you how much I appreciate your free recipes. Keep up the good work! This recipe is magic.
I used a very ripe banana instead of sugar. It probably threw off the consistency but tasted good to me!
OMG. These are absolutely delicious. I don’t consume sugar so I use dates (about 13). First soak in water to soften (about 15min), then put them in a food processor and gradually add the date-soaked water to make it consistency of a soft paste. I wouldn’t add all the date water or the squares will Retain too much moisture during baking. Then I baked for 24min to bring some firmness. Wonderful!
I’ve gotta tell ya! I love this recipe and I make it all the time. But today I had a hankering for some banana bread and just couldn’t get it out of my head. I swapped the pumpkin out with a medium overripe banana and voila! The most amazing gf vegan banana bread bars.
Thanks again for sharing your recipes. I love them love them love them!
I just made these and they were amazing! I added some pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries to jazz them up, and they turned out perfect. I also cut the sugar down to only 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and I think they are plenty sweet. I am so happy I have something so healthy to munch on all week, thanks for the great recipe Angela!
To celebrate fall I’m making tons of pumpkin-themed dishes from your blog this week. :) Tomorrow I’m going to try making the pumpkin spice latte and the pumpkin pie smoothie.
Turned out wonderfully! Thank you for the recipe =]