Healthy Pumpkin Blondies
These Healthy Pumpkin Blondies are dense, chewy, naturally sweetened, and intensely warming from the combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Oh, and could I forget?? They’re tooootally addicting! You’d honestly never know they’re sugar free, gluten free, dairy free and vegan.
This is the perfect thing to ring in the month of October. The second it starts to get colder outside, or the very sight of a leaf changing color, people lose. their. shit.
It’s gotta be PUMPKIN EVERYTHAAAAAANG!!
Despite all the recipes I’ve made with pumpkin, I’m not its biggest fan. I’m neutral to pumpkin’s flavor, it’s “eh” to me. I just adore everything else that gets paired along with pumpkin: ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, the sugary sweetness (my fave is maple syrup and a hint of molasses). I could smell a jar of cinnamon allll daayyy loooong.
But, I know YOU like pumpkin. Everybody loves pumpkin (except me). So I thought I’d make blondies for ya.
These Healthy Pumpkin Blondies are flavorful, chewy, sweet, utterly amazing.
Nothing boring or dry here. In fact, these blondies are dense and rich just like typical blondies, except they’re all natural, refined sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, and vegan. Yes, they’re actually good for you!
Healthy Pumpkin Blondies
Ingredients
- 120g (1 cup) Oat Flour
- 85g (½ cup + 2 tbs) Quinoa Flour (or Sweet White Sorghum Flour)
- 1 tbs Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- 215g (¾ cup + 2 tbs) 100% Pure Pumpkin Puree
- 144g (¾ cup) Granulated Erythritol (or Sucanat or Pure Maple Sugar)
- 112g (½ cup) Coconut Oil (melted)
- ⅓ cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1 tbs Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 1 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
- ½ cup Mini Dark Chocolate Chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8x8" brownie pan with parchment paper both ways.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the oat flour, quinoa flour (or sorghum flour), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking powder.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, erythritol, melted coconut oil, almond milk, vanilla extract, stevia extract and butter flavor.
- Dump the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and fold together. Mix in the optional chocolate chips, if using.
- Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and spread it out with an offset spatula.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until the center springs back when tapped. Let cool, then slice and serve!
Recipe Notes
- The recipe above is my revised recipe. I originally posted a Pumpkin Blondie recipe back in 2012 but felt like it could use some work on the texture. Just in case you wanted to see the previous recipe and/or the changes I made, I'm providing the old recipe here:
- 497g (one 15oz can + ¼ cup) 100% Pure Pumpkin Puree
- 14g (1 tbs) Grapeseed Oil
- ½ tsp Stevia Extract
- ½ tsp Natural Butter Flavor
- 48g (⅓ cup) Pure Maple Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 160g (1 cup) Brown Rice Flour
- 120g (1 cup) Oat Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
I told you that you can feel good about eating these blondies! Not only because they’re full of healthy ingredients, but because they’re nutritionally balanced with healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. I feel ZERO guilt about eating two in a row.
These Healthy Pumpkin Blondies are so good, they’re a must make.
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
I love those dog pictures. Hehe, if I did that to my dog Lilly, she would probably never let me pick her up again!
And I just have to say that these blondies are PERFECT for me. I hate when I see a blondie recipe that is “gluten-free” and egg-free, I get super excited, then I realize that they are made out of legumes. Personally my stomach does not like legumes of any sort. But these. These are made with pumpkin. My stomach loves pumpkin… As do I 🙂
These look perfect Jessica. My husband just asked if I could go make these right now B-)
Haha your dog is so cute! I love the recipe, too…they look delicious!
Just found your blog and love it! Your pictures are gorgeous!:)
I had a pumpkin craving and as soon as I saw these I had to try to make them. I made a few changes to the recipe, but it worked out. I only had 1 can of pumpkin puree and no maple sugar so I used the one can, and 1/4 cup + 2tbsp maple syrup and a 1/4 cup of water to up the liquid content a bit. I didn’t use stevia extract, but just one packet of stevia. I didn’t have oat flour so I just ground up some rolled oats and I didn’t have brown rice flour so I used Bob’s red mill all purpose GF flour. They turned out great, though a bit wet. I think next time I make them I will omit that extra 1/4 cup of water. I also didn’t bother to ice them, because I don’t like to use sugar alcohols (nor do I have any). However, they are slightly sweet and delicious!
P.s. this site is great! keep up the excellent work!
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Where can you buy powdered erythritol? Is it available in stores?
I love the idea of this recipe. I do have some issues though. The ONLY extract I am familiar with is vanilla. I take that back, I have used mint.
I do not use sugar substitutes, so I do not know how to use real sugar or honey in place of the ones listed here. I need to know how to use normal ingredients for:
1/2 tsp Stevia Extract-will I notice this missing?
1/2 tsp Butter Extract -will I notice this missing?
120g (1 cup) Powdered Erythritol –is this just powdered sugar? Would I use the same amount?
Tamika-
1/2 tsp of stevia is equal to 1/2 cup of sugar, so if you omit this you will need to add some sweeteners. I would recommend 1/3 cup of honey or pure maple syrup.
The butter extract adds a rich and buttery flavor without using real butter. It’s all natural and dairy-free, but if you want to omit it that will be fine… it probably didn’t change the flavor too much.
The powdered erythritol is a natural sweetener that tastes exactly like powdered sugar. You can replace this with an equal amount of regular powdered sugar (preferably organic or fair-trade!)
I hope I helped answer your questions 🙂
-Jess
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Agreed! Finally another girl who isn’t fawning all over pumpkin. It’s fine, but I like apple and cinnamon flavors for the Fall even more. 🙂
PUMPKINNNNN. Although I refuse to participate in the Pumpkin Spice Latte “activity”. Haha I’m not thattt basic. 😉
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Jess, so you toast your Quinoa Flour before using? I used some nontoasted for a chocolate brownie recipe, and it was so bitter, I had to throw it away.
No, I don’t toast my quinoa flour. In small amounts, I like the taste of quinoa flour (as do some of my baker friends). I guess it’s an acquired taste then… you can substitute the quinoa flour with sorghum flour if you want! 🙂
just made these yesterday!…i used 3/4 cup maple syrup instead of dry sugars…it worked out just fine–added a bit more pumpkin puree, and added a bit more ‘flours’ to compensate…..my bars did not look as luscious as yours–probably because I used muffin cooking tray… but they were tasty…husband liked that they were not over-sweet….and most importantly, my girls ate them!
Oh wow, I’m so surprised those substitutes worked out for you!! I’ve always been hesitant to try replacing dry sweeteners with liquid ones, but you’ve given me hope 🙂
Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out. Glad y’all liked them!
-Jess
Could I substitute molasses and applesauce/cashew milk for the sweetener? And protein powder for the quinoa flour? 🙂
In my opinion, molasses doesn’t add as much sweetness, and it’ll turn the blondies very very dark brown. Protein powder MIGHT work, but it tends to make things cakey and dry, so you’d probably need to add some more coconut oil… or you can just eat them with a nut butter topping? I haven’t tried subs here because I like the blondies just the way they are 😉
-Jess
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