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Tis the season for pumpkin and these pumpkin chocolate chip bars are seasonal and healthy! Gluten free and oil free makes these a great holiday dessert option for those who want a sweet treat but to maintain their special dietary needs. Let me tell you the story of how these vegan pumpkin chocolate chop bars came to be made in my kitchen.
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I am the type who buys stuff and then sits on it.
Not literally (ha) but figuratively.
I bought some Ryze gluten free flour awhile ago, after reading spectacular reviews on it on Amazon late one night. Then I stuck it in my cupboard and couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted to make with it. Truth be told, I think I was a little afraid to use it! Despite the great reviews, would the gluten free flour hold up to its wheat nemesis?
Pumpkin Bar Gluten Free Flour Success
Right before Thanksgiving, I was doing menu planning and came across Cooking Classy’s Pumpkin Bars with Chocolate Chips recipe. I really wanted to try this but knew I needed to change a few things.
-No Eggs
-No Oil
-No Gluten
-Naturally Sweetened
Yes, looking at that list, I knew I had my work cut out for me!
Then I recalled I had that gluten free flour in my cabinet. I thought this was the perfect time to try it out and see if it held up to the cookie bar test.
Because quite honestly I had tried some other gluten free flours and they had tasted a little odd…one even had a weird fruity taste.
But this flour in the yellow bag from Ryze – it worked! (and no this post is NOT sponsored! Just a gal with an opinion on what she used!)
Pumpkin Dessert with No Oil? No Eggs? Naturally Sweetened, Too!
Having conquered the gluten free flour mission, I thought to myself, well, while we are at it let’s health-ify this cookie bar the remainder of the way. Let’s cut out oil, eggs, and refined sugar.
I swapped So Delicious Unsweetened Vanilla dairy free yogurt for the oil. Made a flax egg to replace an actual egg and used only maple syrup with molasses for the sweetener. Ta-Da!
OF course the dairy free miniature chocolate chips have sugar… so if you must leave them out, do so. BUT they are really good with the pumpkin. Trust me on that – just like you did with our Pumpkin Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars.
If you make these vegan, dairy free, gluten free, oil free, refined sugar free healthy pumpkin chocolate chips bars, we would love to know! Tag @badtothebowl when you post so we can share in on the fun!
Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 flax egg
- 1/2 cup pure pumpkin purée
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons molasses
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips , I used Enjoy Life brand
- 2 Tablespoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips , I used Enjoy Life brand
Instructions
- Make flax egg first! Combine flax and water in small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and either lightly spray an 8×8 inch pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
- Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and stir to mix.
- Combine wet ingredients and stir well. Add flax egg to wet ingredients last and stir well.
- Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and stir until all combined.
- Fold in 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
- Pour into prepared pan. Then press remaining 1/8 cup chocolate chips into top of pan.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes*** until knife or toothpick near center comes out clean.
- Enjoy warm or let cool and store in fridge
Notes
- *use your preferred gluten free flour blend. I used Ryze yellow bag gluten free flour. Don’t need gluten free? Use unbleached white flour.
- **for a flax egg – combine 1 tblsp ground flax with 1 1/2 tbsp water
- ***mine took 30 minutes
Nutrition
