Chewy, crunchy, and wholesome pumpkin spice snack bars filled with texture and flavor. Grain-free fall snacking at its best!
If you’ve tried my vanilla almond snack bars or my cherry chocolate almond snack bars, then you must know a pumpkin spiced version will be just as tasty! These snack bars are my version of a KIND bar, but homemade. Filled with ingredients you can see and absolutely no surprises. Being that pumpkin pie inspired treats rule my kitchen in the fall, I had to whip up today’s version.
(Have you tried these pumpkin snickerdoodles yet?)
These gluten free bars are made with nuts, dried fruit, and not much else. One ingredient you may not recognize is almond meal. This ingredient is used in my spiced pumpkin seed cranberry snack bars to hold the ingredients together. Like grains would do in another granola bar. For anyone not familiar with almond meal, donโt be nervous. It is just ground almondsโground almonds before reaching the stage of almond butter. You can buy almond meal, but I find itโs much more convenient to make it at home. Simply pulse almonds until they reach a gritty and rough flour-like consistency.
Also in these pumpkin bars? Some roughly chopped almonds for crunch, pepitas, dried cranberries, vanilla extract, and almond butter to bind. And don’t forget plenty of pumpkin pie spice for all that incredible spice flavor. You’re going to love these.
Honey is used for sweetening and binding, just like in these quinoa snack bars. Like Iโve mentioned in my previous snack bar recipes, I do not recommend thinner liquid sweeteners like maple syrup or agave. You want a thick liquid sweetener. Brown rice syrup works too.
Bake the snack barsโonly about 20 minutes or so. Just until they are relatively set and the ingredients bind together properly. Then, chill them in the refrigerator to fully set before slicing and enjoying.
If you love pumpkin spice treats and are looking for something healthier, you’ll love this pumpkin granola, my baked pumpkin oatmeal cups, and these pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal bars, too.
While they’re not pumpkin flavored, I’d be remiss not to mention these berry vanilla cashew snack bars, tooโone of my favorites!
Spiced Pumpkin Seed Cranberry Snack Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Chewy, crunchy, and wholesome pumpkin spice snack bars filled with texture and flavor. Grain-free fall snacking at its best!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey*
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (30g) almond meal*
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) almond butter
- 1 and 1/3 cups (187g) whole almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup (60g) dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup (104g) saltedย pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300ยฐF (149ยฐC). Line an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper with enough overhang on the sides to easily remove the bars from the pan. Set aside.
- Using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, mix the honey, vanilla, almond meal, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and almond butter together until combined. Fold in the almonds, dried cranberries, and pepitas until combined.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan and press very firmly into an even layer. You really want it packed in tight- as tight as possible. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 1 more hour. This helps firm up the bars which makesย them stay compact. Removeย bars from the pan using the overhang on the sidesย and cut into bars.ย Individually wrap each bar in plastic wrap or parchment. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. I find they get a little sticky at room temperature over a few days, so I prefer the refrigerator.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: These bars are freezer friendly. After wrapping individually, freeze for up to 3 months and thaw before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links):ย 8-inch Square Baking Pan or 9-inch Square Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Silicone Spatula or Wooden Spoon | Cooling Rack
- Sweetener: I do not suggest a thinner sweetener like maple syrup or agaveโhoney or brown rice syrup is perfect.
- Almond Meal: You can use store-bought almond meal or almond flour, or you can make your own. Start with 1/4 cup of slivered, sliced, or whole almonds. Pulse them in a food processor until a crumbly meal has formed. Do not run the food processor continuously; you may end up with almond butter. Little pulses are best. You will end up with around 1/4 cup almond meal.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice. Instead of prepared pumpkin pie spice, you can use 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon each ground cloves and ground allspice.
- Pepitas: I like to use salted pepitas because they add a little salt to the sweet dried cranberries/honey. I love the salty sweet taste! If using unsalted, add another 1/8 teaspoon salt to the recipe OR use salted almonds.
Reader Comments and Reviews
any reason dried blueberries could not be used in place of dried cranberries? thanks
Hi Margaret, yes, that will work just fine. Enjoy!
Followed the recipe exactly, and loved the flavour and your ratios! Found them too soft, so I played with bake times… baked 20 min, then after cooling for the hour at room temp, I pulled the whole thing out, relined the pan with more parchment paper, and then flipped them over back into the pan. Peeled off the old parchment, and then re-pressed it in. Baked for another 20 minutes, then followed your full cooling instructions. After cutting them, I coated one side with melted dark choclate and recooled. They hold together better and are about 50% harder! Perfect! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Was wondering if you could use protein powder in place of the almond meat to bump up the amount of protein
Hi Michelle, the almond meal helps bind the ingredients together, and we haven’t tried protein powder in its place. If you wanted to try, we’d start but substituting half of the almond meal with protein powder and then adjusting for future batches.
I canโt have almond meal. What would be a good substitute?
Hi Lisa, if you can have other types of nuts, creating a similar meal-type consistency out of those should work well.
My daughter can’t have almonds so I’ll be using flax seed meal instead. Turning these into lactation friendly treats by adding brewers yeast too.
Delicious! Great snack or breakfast treat for my wheat free family
I enjoyed the taste and ingredients in these, but found them far too sticky. And they didnโt come out of the pan nicely, just fell apart. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Joan, was the mixture packed in tight? You really want it packed in as tight as possible to help the bars stay together and not crumble. The bars can get a bit sticky at room temperature, so storing them in the refrigerator helps. Glad you enjoyed them!
I made this recipe today to use up some salad toppings I had leftover from a dinner I hosted. I made a couple small adjustments because I truly wanted to make this with only pantry items. I used peanutbutter instead of almond butter. I made my own pumpkin spice seasoning by combining 3/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ground ginger. I was a few tablespoons short of honey so I topped it off with maple syrup. Long story short it was sweet crunchy crunchy and delicious. This is a great way to use if any nuts or seeds you have lying around. Can substitutions be made to this recipe? Absolutely!
Give it a try ๐
These are so delicious, and so easy to make. I used sliced almonds, and now I’m ordering them in bulk from Amazon. I’ll be making these a lot! I also made my own almond flour and almond butter. Lots cheaper than buying them. Excellent healthy snack!
great tasty bars!! The bars stuck together well after refigerating them. I tweaked some of the nut ratios w/ what I had on hand and they turned out yummy.!! So much better tasting than store bought โKind Barsโ!!
Making another batch soon. I did store them in the fridge till they were all eaten up!
How many calories per bar?
Hi Rosetta, We donโt usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
My favorite.
Oh my gosh these are amazing!! I just made a batch and will be making more to stick up in my freezer.
I substituted peanut butter for almond butter and handed in some chia seeds. I also didn’t have pumpkin spice so I added some cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. These turned out fantastic!
Can I substitute the honey for coconut oil?? Spiced Pumpkin Seed snack bars.
I made these yesterday…excellent recipe, we love it, thank-you! One piece of advice you gave that I did not heed was to use the parchment paper to line the bottom. I thought that since I was using a ceramic non-stick pan that I didn’t need the parchment paper because everything I’ve made in those pans has never stuck. I was so wrong, it stuck like super glue to the bottom of this pan. Fortunately, it did not affect the taste and I look forward to using this recipe again and again…WITH parchment paper. ๐
I usually peruse your website for conventional baking, but recently learned Iโm allergic to dairy, eggs and a few other things so Iโm looking for alternatives. I had to chuckle when I read that you were relaxing WITH a mask on and then quickly scrolled up to check the date. Ahhh, not EVERYTHING pertains to 2020.
delicious. i added some shredded coconut. the only problem was getting them to be real hard, like Kind bars. they are good right out of the freezer, too. next time i think i’ll either cook longer or maybe add some rice flour
Hi Sally! Iโve been obsessed with your website the past two months, my boyfriend and I have tried a dozen of your recipes from cookies to the carrot cake! I made these bars last but theyโre arenโt binding together as well as I had hope, any advice?
Hi Nina, I’m so happy you have been enjoying my recipes! The almond butter and honey are used to bind these together. Honey is the best for this job so make sure you aren’t using a thinner sweetener in it’s place. If needed you can try adding an extra TBS of honey.
These are AMAZING! I just found your blog and it is wonderful!! I have made 3 of the snack bar recipes and these are by far my favorite so far. My hubby who is a cookie monster loves them too so these will be the new staple at our house. So much healthier than white sugar and flour treats! Thank you so much!
Just took these out of the oven.. I burnt them slightly, but they still look amazing! My modifications:
Brown rice syrup, almonds AND cashews, pumpkin seeds AND sunflower seeds, I added goji and coconut rather than cranberries, and I mixed almond meal with flax meal!!! ๐
I was wondering if you ever make your own pumpkin seeds and if you do um if you have a favorite recipe for them??ย
Do you think I could use walnut meal instead of almond meal? My grandpa just bought a bag of walnuts and there was a ton of it in the bottom of the bag. I am looking for a good way to use it so it does not get wasted.
I can’t see why not!
Can I use peanut butter instead of almond butter? Natural or not?
You can use peanut butter– natural should be OK as long as it is not too oily.