Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting — These super soft and moist pumpkin bars are the perfect EASY fall dessert!! Tangy cream cheese frosting is a wonderful complement to these perfectly pumpkin-spiced bars!!

Easy Pumpkin Bars Recipe

These traditional pumpkin bars are always a fall favorite. They’re full of robust fall-inspired flavor thanks to a full can of pumpkin puree, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and molasses used in the pumpkin bars.

What I really appreciate about these pumpkin bars is that it’s a one bowl, no mixer recipe to mix up the batter. It literally comes together in a couple minutes.

Although they’re called ‘bars’, they do have a pumpkin cake-like texture, just not quite as fluffy and they’re thinner than your average slice of pumpkin cake.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Bars

These are super easy pumpkin squares with cream cheese frosting, and they call for very basic ingredients.

For the pumpkin bars:

• Vegetable or canola oil
• Eggs
• Granulated sugar
• Light brown sugar
• Pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
• Vanilla extract
• Molasses
• Cinnamon
• Pumpkin pie spice
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt

For the cream cheese frosting:

• Cream cheese
• Butter
• Vanilla extract
• Confectioners’ sugar
• Salt
• Sprinkles, optional

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Pumpkin Bars 

The batter for the cakey pumpkin bars comes together as an easy one bowl, no-mixer recipe. Here’s an overview of the recipe:

1. Whisk together the first nine ingredients all at once, through pumpkin pie spice, before gently stirring in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Turn the batter into a 10×15-inch jelly roll pan.
3. Bake the pumpkin bars until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Let the bars cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting for Pumpkin Bars

I don’t always feel like making cream cheese frosting from scratch, even though it’s SUPER easy. When I have the time and desire to make homemade cream cheese frosting for the pumpkin bars, here’s how I do it:

1. Add the cream cheese and butter to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt to help offset the sweetness of the frosting.
3. Spread it on your bars and for fun, I like to garnish the bars with festive fall-inspired sprinkles.

Storage Instructions

Because of the frosting, I recommend storing the bars airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Unfrosted bars may be stored at room temp for up to 5 days at room temp or in the fridge for up to 1 week.

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4.89 from 17 votes

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

By Averie Sunshine

These super soft and moist pumpkin bars are the perfect EASY fall dessert!! Tangy cream cheese frosting is a wonderful complement to these perfectly pumpkin-spiced bars!!

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cooling Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 18

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Ingredients  

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Bars

• ▢ 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ one-15 ounce can pumpkin puree
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 tablespoon molasses
• ▢ 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, or to taste* (See Notes)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or to taste* (See Notes)
• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting* (See Notes)

• ▢ 8 ounces full-fat block-style cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• ▢ ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• ▢ 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, or as needed; sifted if yours is particularly lumpy
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ▢ sprinkles as desired for garnishing, optional

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Instructions 

Make the Bars:

• Preheat oven to 350F and spray a nonstick 10x15-inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray; set aside. Note - You could make this recipe in a 9x13-inch pan noting that the bars will be thicker and take a bit longer to bake.
• To a large bowl, add the oil, eggs, sugars, pumpkin, vanilla, molasses (technically can be omitted but I love the flavor and recommend it), cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and whisk well to combine until smooth.
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and stir until just combined; don't overmix.
• Turn batter out into prepared pan and bake approximately 30 minutes, or until bars are set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter. Start checking on your bars by 22-25 minutes since all ovens vary.
• Allow bars to cool in the pan for 1 hour, or until cool to the touch, before frosting them. Don't add frosting to warm bars or it will melt.
• While bars are cooling, make the frosting.

Make the Frosting:

• To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer, add the cream cheese, butter, and beat for about 2 minutes, or until well combined and smooth. Tip - Make sure the both are well softened to room temp otherwise it will be much harder to mix them.
• Add 3 cups confectioners' sugar, vanilla, salt (helps balance the sweetness of the frosting), and beat first on low speed, and then on high for about 2 minutes, or until combined and fluffy. Tips - I don't sift my confectioners' sugar generally speaking but that being said, it will be harder for your mixer to smooth out the little lumps and so if you want perfectly smooth frosting, sift your sugar before adding it. If you want thicker frosting, add an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar.
• Evenly spread the frosting over the bars, using a knife or spatula to smooth it.
• Optionally, garnish with sprinkles to taste (I used some I found in my box of sprinkles that I bought years ago from Target) and serve.

Notes

* I prefer richly and boldly spiced pumpkin desserts so I use two teaspoons of cinnamon and two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, which tends to be a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. If you're not a fan of cinnamon, or prefer more mildly spiced recipes, dial back the quantity of spices and add them to your tastes.

*Frosting: To save time, buy a tub of shelf-stable cream cheese frosting found in the baking aisle of your grocery store.

To store: Because of the frosting, I recommend storing the bars airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week. Unfrosted bars may be stored at room temp for up to 5 days at room temp or in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 299kcal, Carbohydrates: 51g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 61mg, Sodium: 293mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 38g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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