Too Good To Be True, Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Oat Bars

Are these Pumpkin Oat Bars a bit of an indulgence? Yes. Are there a few steps in making them? Yes. Are they beyond worth it, in every sense of the way? YES. Omg these are good. Luscious, silky pumpkin filling floating on an oat & almond flour crust, topped with sweet oat crumbles. A perfect spin on classic holiday flavors. And although it seems too good to be true, yes these are gluten-free and vegan!

Something I love about this recipe is that it’s versatile. I made bars, but you can easily bake this in a pie dish for more of a pumpkin pie feel. You can also use the oat crust with any kind of topping or filling. And while I made this recipe gluten-free, you can easily use regular flour instead of almond flour. It’s all about using what you have and what you love!

After baking, these need a few hours in the fridge, so this is a perfect dish to make ahead of time, or even the night before.

What You’ll Need…

For the oat crust

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (gluten-free or regular)

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour (can sub regular flour)

• 3/4 cup melted coconut oil

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

For the pumpkin filling

• 1 (15 oz) can unsweetened pumpkin purée

• 1 cup coconut cream*

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 3 Tbsp cornstarch

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• 1/4 tsp salt

What You’ll Do…

• Preheat your oven to 350 and line a 9x9 baking dish with parchment paper, leaving extra parchment on either side as tabs for lifting bars out of the pan. If doing as a pie, skip the parchment.

• In a large bowl, add all crust ingredients and stir to combine (I like to use my hands to really make sure that everything is nicely combined). Add 1 3/4 cups of the crust mixture to the baking dish and press into an even layer covering the entire bottom of the dish. Set the rest of the crust mixture aside. Bake crust for 15 minutes.

• While crust is baking, add all filling ingredients to a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth.

• When crust comes out of the oven, add filling mixture in an even layer on top of crust, and bake for 30 minutes.

• Carefully remove from the oven and add rest of oat crust mixture to the top of the filling, gently pressing to adhere to the filling (remember, it’s hot!). Put back in the oven and bake for a final 30 minutes.

• Remove from oven, let cool for 20 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for at least 3 hours, up to overnight. Serve as you like, maybe with whipped topping, dusted with powdered sugar, with ice cream, or perfectly as-is. Enjoy!

*Chef’s Notes

- Do not sub coconut cream. If you are unable to find coconut cream, get canned full-fat coconut milk, and only use the solid white cream top. Otherwise, your filling will not set.

- For more of a “Pudding Crumble”, skip the chilling and serve warm. It will be soft with oat crumbles.