I love pumpkin bars.
Holy moly ladies and gents. I forgot how good these were! Peanut butter and Jelly might be the originals but Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Frosting are the new kids in town. Move over Regis… I’m loving my Kelly & Michael!
These little babies are just happy food.
Happy fluffy pumpkin-y cake with happy smooth cream cheese frosting. The kind of simple desserts that make a bad day good and a good day that much better.
I’m even more excited about this recipe because I worked so hard at getting it exactly right! I love regular pumpkin bars – but the addition of banana makes the flavor in these so smooth and compliments the pumpkin perfectly. Topped with a light cream cheese frosting - these are heaven. Plus these are a much lower cal way to indulge in a fall favorite – all of the flavor and none of the guilt!
Nothing says Fall, comfort food, and happy – all at the same time – quite like pumpkin bars.
And nothing says tease, secret, and yum……quite like a guest post :)
Today I’m guest posting over at Kym’s delicious blog, The Free Spirit Eater! Go check out her addictive site here! Kym is a total sweetheart and I’m so excited she’s sharing her yummy space with me this week!
And here’s a printable version for you all, as promised :)
Skinny Pumpkin-Banana Bars 
Yields 24 large bars
Note: These can also easily be made into a dairy-version by swapping out the soy yogurt for regular yogurt, dairy-free cream cheese for regular, and vegan margarine for regular
Ingredients:
For the Bars
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup mashed banana
- 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup soy yogurt (or regular yogurt)
- 15-ounce can pumpkin
- 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
For the Icing
- 8-ounce package dairy-free cream cheese (I like Tofutti brand) , softened
- 1/2 cup vegan margarine (I like Earth Balance), softened
- 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation:
Make the Bars
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, mashed banana, sugar, oil, soy yogurt, and pumpkin until light and fluffy.
- Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth.
- Spread the batter into your greased baking pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean with most crumbs clinging to it. Let cool completely before frosting.
Make the Frosting
- Combine the dairy-free cream cheese and vegan margarine in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again.
- Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.
Nutrition Information (1/24 of cake plus 1 tablespoon frosting); Calories: 205, Fat: 8 grams
Nutrition Information of just the cake (1/24 of cake); Calories: 141, Fat: 4 grams
So pretty!!!
looks delicious, especially the photo with the cream cheese topping dripping down the side. YUM!
Oh wow, I’ve never thought to add banana and pumpkin together!! It sounds amazing!! That frosting on top is just mouth watering!
They’re soo good together :) One of my favorite combos!
OMG I’m totally making these…wow yum.
Loved the pic on Facebook and had to come here :) These look so so delicious!! Off to check out the recipe :)
Thanks Soni! Just made them again today :) I have no willpower…
Wow, these look amazing!
Can’t believe these are skinny :D
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
these look soooo good, i just adore the flavor of pumpkin! off to check out the post!
I’m loving that antique-style plate!! And the dessert looks delectable on it.
Ooo thanks! I found it at Anthro and fell in love :) It goes with a coffee cup too, wish I woulda bought more than 1!
I love all things pumpkin and this looks wonderful~ I wonder if I could use half white and half whole wheat flour and maybe less oil by adding applesauce (might get too mushy).
Readers may prefer to use fresh homemade pumpkin puree instead of the processed kind. Here’s how: http://cookingripe.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/homemade-pumpkin-puree/
Hi Bestie! Yes you can definitely do those substations – Just be careful, when you substitute in too much apple sauce you compromise the texture, sometimes it can get a bit too spongy, definitely lower cal but not always as tasty :)
These look awesome! I have never actually baked with pumpkin before – but these look sooooo good! Your blog is stunning!!!!! REALLY! So clean, fresh and beautiful! I am so glad I found you!
Thanks so much Heidi! You are too sweet! And you MUST cook with pumpkin :) Pumpkin desserts are some of my favorites!
Mmm looking forward to trying these out, they look delish! Thank you :)
I am with you on pumpkin…mmm! This looks so good! GORGEOUS photos!!
Thanks Nichole! It took me a bit to get that drippy frosting.. just… right :)
They are so cool and totally addictive!
These look amazing!! I will eat anything that involves pumpkin, and I love that these are vegan too!!! Your site is so lovely!!!
Thanks Alissa! You’re too sweet! I”m with you on the pumpkin :) I swear I will pretty much eat anything that has it… especially when its covered in cream cheese frosting!
OMG, these sound amazing Kristina! I love that you made these healthy. I made Paula Deen’s pumpkin bar recipe last year and literally cut the butter, oil, and sugar in half and they were still delicious, but probably also still terrible for you haha.
Hahah oook Paula Deen’s pumpkin bars are seriously good though! Have you made her monster cookies? There’s literally 4 sticks of butter… plus peanut butter…and M&Ms..but they are so good!
These bars are so gorgeous! Love!
Thinking of adding vanilla protein powder. Anyone have a subsitute for eggs, and any nutrition stats would be great! Thanks!
Definitely have some ideas :) Here’s a simple egg substitute – 1 teaspoon baking soda plus 1 tablespoon apple cider or white vinegar (for one egg). Or you could buy commercial egg replacer like Ener G. I’ll definitely get those nutrition stats up asap too, you can look for them later tonight!
I’ve made egg substitute using flax seed and water–1 tbsp. flaxseed plus 3 tbsp. water gives you equiv. to 1 egg. Works pretty well, especially in recipes with lots of moist ingredients and spicy flavors like this.
these sound wonderful. I love pumpkin and banana also. love pumpkin bars and banana bars – so why not combine them.
can’t wait to try them
do you just experiment or are you a chef
Thanks Deb! Soon to be chef :) Heading off to culinary school in couple months!
These are indeed WONDERFUL. And what great timing…I have a banana that`s riping!
Any suggestions on adding a crumb topping instead of the icing? Looking for something more on the coffee/crumb cake side
Definitely! You could try cutting 1/2 stick butter (or vegan butter) into 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt – that should give you a pretty yummy streusel topping! I haven’t tried it with this particular recipe so you might need more streusel than what I just told you (my pumpkin bars make a pretty big 9×13 pan), so just double the ingredients if need be :) Hope this helps!
I was looking for nutition stats as well… I’ll check back in a bit… looks GREAT!
They’re up now :) Sorry it took me a bit!
So glad I found your site! I absolutely love it and you are gorgeous! I have a vegan blog so I’m happy to see some vegan healthy recipes on yours! These bars look simply mouthwatering!! I have some chocolate pumpkin bars and am thrilled to add these to try next!
These look o so moist and cakey! and mmmmmmmmmm the cream cheese topping! Gurrrlll I’m with you, there just aint no other way!
These looked amazing, and provided another way to use aging bananas that isn’t the standard banana bread. Thank you!
I did some tweaking based on my cupboard contents. Instead of yogurt, I used sour cream–if you mix the baking soda with the sour cream and let it sit for 5 minutes, it will puff up and help with the raising. I added the sour cream at the same time as the instructions say for yogurt. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and used unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil. (The sour cream trick helps with raising as the applesauce is heavier than oil would have been). Was very pleased with the results!
Your version sounds fabulous!! So happy you enjoyed these :) Love all the changes you made!
this sounds great, as I really try to cut back on sugar
I can;t believe these are so good for you and yet look so amazing. What a brilliant recipe.
PUMPKIN ALL-YEAR-’ROUND!! This is a motivational recipe! I had the oven switched on 5 min after I read it, only slowed by having to reply to a text from my husband. I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating that I had dug around in the cabinets and found all the ingredients, mixed them up, greased the dish w/coconut oil and spread the batter into it in the course of roughly 35 minutes. Now I am paying my 40-min baking time dues, and I’m salivating! Barring any natural disaster, I shall have a follow-up comment ready for you shortly after lunch! Thanks!
No natural disaster happened to me personally (still praying for the devastated families in Moore, OK); I simply was distracted, once again, by life. But the bars were a huge hit here in my house, and I’m making some this morning. Thank you for the recipe. I’m going to try with less sugar this time. I used 1/2 Stevia-in-the-Raw with the first batch I made. They were delicious, but I prefer natural sugar, and I read the comments about using less sugar with still-delicious results. BTW, love reading all the comments from people who’ve actually prepared these and have tips. I hope my kids will grow up to COOK food instead of heat up or prepare out of convenience packages. I think they will, since my husband and I both cook and they have experience the difference in taste between homemade and boxed!
Yum, these look absolutely delicious! I love pumpkin but I rarely bake with it so these seem like a good place to start! :)
Definitely :) You can’t wrong with pumpkin and cream cheese frosting!