Pumpkin, peanut butter, caramel bars, for your (stress) baking inspiration! Caramel but don’t get me wrong, they’re still totally low in added sugar.
Ever since I consciously moved away from “healthy desserts for instagram” I’ve been trying to appreciate regular desserts, with butter, white sugar, white flour and all that.
All good, but sugar… I just can’t 🤷🏻♀️ Intuitive, mindful eating should be… intuitive and mindful. I just cannot ignore how badly I feel after a really really sugary snack.
If only a 1/2 cup serving of caramel popcorn can give me heart palpitations, headache, dehydrated, unable to focus, I just no longer want it. 🤔 What do you think? How does too much sugar make you feel?
I ended up making these bars low sugar, naturally sweetened, and they hit the spot perfectly. Let me know if you give them a try!
Small-batch Pumpkin Pecan Caramel Bars
Equipment
- Standard loaf pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (120 g) sub sweet potato puree
- 1/4 cup nut/seed butter (64 g) I used peanut butter
- 2 tbsp maple syrup (42 g)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup oats (60 g) quick or rolled
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice adjust to taste
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup pecans or other nuts, chopped (30 g) sub chocolate chips
Caramel topping
- 1 tbsp nut/seed butter (16 g) I used peanut butter, almond butter will be more neutral tasting
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (21 g)
- pinch of salt
- drop of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a standard loaf pan with parchment.
- Mix together caramel ingredients (you might want to gently microwave a bit to make it runny), set aside.
- Mix all but caramel in a bowl starting with pumpkin, nut butter, maple syrup and vanilla. Stir in the pecans.
- Pour into baking dish, drizzle on the caramel and bake 30-35 minutes until set.
- Cool (ideally refrigerate overnight) before slicing. Enjoy!
Notes
- These bars are sweet enough for snacks. If you want dessert bars, add another 2 tbsp maple/sugar to the recipe.
Nutrition