It’s October and that means it’s time for pumpkin recipes. This past year I was happy to have been able to grow my own mini baking pumpkins and Lakota Sioux squash in my front yard garden beds. Although we did end up getting some powdery mildew, I was able to control it, as I shared with you here, and harvest about 8 different pumpkins before the plants called it quits.
I’ve already started using some of the pumpkins, cut up, and added to stews, but the kids get the most excited about pureeing them to use in baked goods like these naturally sweetened pumpkin bars. It’s a great time of year to start stocking up on mini baking pumpkins. They keep quite well in a cold area of your house or basement. I usually stock up and purchase about 15-20 different varieties of squash and keep them in my basement to use all winter long.
Let me tell you, you’re going to want to have some extra pumpkins to puree in the cold of the winter once you try out this recipe.
For these naturally sweetened pumpkin bars, I used einkorn flour. (If you’d like a reminder on why my family has chosen einkorn flour for all of our baking needs please read my post, The Tangled Web of Bread, by clicking here.) I’m hooked on it, especially the high extraction all purpose flour by Jovial that can be substituted in recipes 1:1.
To sweeten the bars I used honey, and for the cream cheese frosting I used a bit of maple syrup and organic evaporated cane juice.
All-in-all, they turned out to be just the kind of pumpkin bar you’d want in this season … soft and moist, just the right amount of spice, with a gently sweetened frosting that your entire family will enjoy.
These naturally sweetened pumpkin bars are soft and moist, just the right amount of spice, and gently sweetened with honey.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups einkorn flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground all spice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup honey
- ½ cup butter (1 stick), melted
- 1½ cups pumpkin puree
- 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 tbls pure maple syrup
- 1 cup organic powdered sugar
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Butter and flour a 9" x 13" baking pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the einkorn flour, baking powder, cinnamon, all spice, and baking soda; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the eggs, honey, butter, and pumpkin puree over low speed. A 3 on my KitchenAid.
- A cup at a time, add the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared 9" x 13" pan and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and butter. Mix together over medium speed until smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract, maple syrup, and powdered sugar. Mix on low until mixed through then raise the speed to medium to cream together.
- Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.
Oh yum! Will definitely be trying this recipe very soon! Thank you!
I love fall because of the crisp, cool air, the changing leaves, and all things pumpkin! I make pumpkin bars, cookies, waffles, pancakes, and brownies. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I love the flavor and moisture that honey adds to baked goods. Pinning this one!
Yum! This looks delish… Thanks for sharing! We’re doing October Unprocessed, so this could be a good treat. I’ll have to do something with the powdered sugar in the frosting (or skip the frosting), but I made a frosting out of just maple syrup and cream cheese last year for Maddie, and that worked well.
Do you happen to know… Is the Einkorn flour whole grain? I saw on their site that it’s “all purpose” so I was assuming it’s the equivalent of regular AP flour just made with einkorn wheat? Just curious if it will pass the kitchen test for October Unprocessed. 🙂
Jen, this is an 85% extraction flour, meaning that 15% of the bran and germ have been removed. It isn’t like all purpose flour, where it’s been processed by means of being bleached, bromated, etc… So, yes, it definitely passes the test for October unprocessed!
As far as the powdered sugar, you could grind your own sucanat or palm sugar to a powder in your blender and use that. Just a thought 😀
So maybe this is a dumb question, and I should probably know how to do this, but have you ever posted about how you make your pumpkin puree? I think I’ve done it before in the past (like maybe ten years ago) but it turned out REALLY runny. I’m assuming you bake or steam your pumpkin and then puree it. Do you use a blender or a food processor? Thanks.
Emily, no, not a dumb question at all! I need to do a tutorial on this because a lot of people are unfamiliar with the process. Check out this tutorial on the Nourishing Gourmet here, she has a great tutorial –> http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/09/roasting-pumpkins-for-pies-and-other-projects.html. I’ll make sure to make one on my own site soon 😀
Can I use whole wheat flour instead of the einkorn?
Thanks!
Jill, yes!
Is it o.k. to use flour that I grind myself from einkorn berries or do I need to use the high extraction flour for this?
Suzie, I have not tried it with fresh ground einkorn berries. If anything, I would add about a 1/2 cup more flour to start with. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
A silly question I am sure…but how do I get to the recipe? My computer isn’t linking or maybe I don’t understand the recipe number at the end…?? Looks delicious!
Oh no! I am viewing this from my phone from my Bloglovin’ feed and am not able to see the recipe in the plugin you are using. I also don’t see a button where I can pin this to check out later. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case I am not the only one who likes to read blogs on my phone. Based on the pictures and text this sounds like a recipe I would like to try.
Hi Diana,
Thank you for this delicious recipe. I made it today with ingredients on hand (substituting with enriched light spelt flour, and the sweetener being a combo of maple syrup, amaretto syrup, and molasses). I added pecans, raisins and chocolate chips. I didn’t make the icing this time. I used a blender and It turned out terrific! Thanks again.
oops I meant a food processor not a blender. Thanks
Hihihi,
I baked the pumpkin bars and my whole family loved it! So moist, even my junk-loving husband was raving about it.
Pssst, I didn’t make the frosting and no one missed it lol.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE. It feels good to feed the kids something that is not made out of white flour or white sugar.
Great to hear!!
These look fantastic and just what I was looking for! YAY! We grew SO many pumpkins this year I need to do something with them and honey sweetened pie was the only thing I had to do with them. This will be a nice twist. I’m going to sub sprouted white wheat, hopefully that will work ok and probably switch the honey for maple syrup for our company tonight that can’t do honey. Thanks for the great recipe! I’ll have to poke around your site some more 🙂
I hope you like them!