I absolutely adore oats! They’re incredibly versatile and need very little ingredients added to them in order to make a hearty and healthy breakfast or snack. Baked oat bars are one of my favorite things to make because usually, I throw together a variable of 4-6 ingredients that I have laying around my kitchen and bake them up for 20 minutes for a nutrish and satisfying treat!
For the fall season, I changed things up a bit and made pumpkin the star ingredient!
The great thing about these bars (and most of my recipes) is that you can add ingredients or change them up. Feel free to use different nuts or add pepitas or dates — whatever floats your boat!
Also, I will warn you, I don’t overly sweeten my recipes so you may want to add more maple syrup or perhaps brown or coconut sugar. A little vanilla or maple extract might also sweeten the deal without adding sugar.
Pumpkin-Pecan Oat Bars
Ingredients:
For ingredient suggestions and a shopping list visit my Amazon idea page for this recipe.
Makes 4 bars or 8 squares (if using mini loaf pans)
- 2 cups Rolled Oats
- 1 1/2 cups Canned Pumpkin
- 1/8 cup Pecans, roughly chopped or broken into small pieces
- 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
- 2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- Dash of Salt
- Coconut Oil or Coconut Oil Cooking/Baking Spray
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease 4 mini loaf pans, or a muffin pan, or any other type of pan. I used mini loaf pans because they come out perfectly sized. Note: You won’t be filling them to the top! That would probably add baking time and it would be quite dense!
- Place oats in a large bowl. Add pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt. Stir well.
- Add pumpkin and maple syrup. Stir well.
- Add in chopped nuts and any other add-ins you might want. I thought about adding pepitas, but I didn’t want it be too complex or crunchy.
- Divide mixture evenly among greased pans. I placed about 1/2 cup in each mini loaf pan.
- Press mixture down and smooth with the back of a spoon or spatula into a flat and even bar inside the pans.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. They’re ready when the bars start to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Let cool for a couple of minutes and simply turn over onto a plate for easy removal. The bars will easily fall out without any effort. Enjoy as a breakfast bar, in between meal snack, or a healthy dessert!