Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars 🎃🍫 are an EASY, one bowl, no mixer recipe that you can whip up anytime a pumpkin craving strikes. They’re super soft, dense, and rich, almost like biting into a piece of pumpkin fudge. Loaded with chocolate chips in every bite, they’re the perfect cozy fall treat!
Easy Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars Recipe
- It’s no secret I love pumpkin recipes of any kind. But when pumpkin and chocolate get together, watch out. My kryptonite.
- If you’re looking for the best ever pumpkin chocolate chip cake, I’ve got you covered, but these bars aren’t cake. They’re super soft, moist, and full of robust pumpkin flavor. They’re dense like a blondie rather than cakey.
- These pumpkin chocolate bars are like biting into a piece of rich pumpkin fudge. When I want an easy, fuss-free recipe that I know everyone will love, I call upon my trusty blondie base. With 25+ versions and counting, it never lets me down.
- It’s an easy no-mixer, one-bowl recipe that takes just minutes to whisk together. There’s an abundance of chocolate in every bite, and pumpkin and chocolate is such a winning combo.
Ingredients in Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
- Unsalted butter, egg, pumpkin puree, light brown sugar, and vanilla: These bars have a short ingredient list and are easy to prepare. Use plain pumpkin puree, not canned pumpkin pie filling, because pumpkin pie filling is already sweetened and spiced.
- Pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon: These add warm, cozy fall flavor and make the pumpkin flavor pop.
- All-purpose flour: Gives the bars structure while keeping them soft, dense, and moist.
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips: Chocolate chips pair perfectly with pumpkin, but you can mix and match up to the same total amount of add-ins. Baking chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruit would all work nicely.
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 Chocolate Chip Bars
- Whisk together the wet ingredients, then stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, being careful not to overmix the batter.
- Turn the batter into an 8×8-inch pan and sprinkle more chocolate chips over the top.
- Bake until the bars are set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
I first made this recipe, I think, the fall of 2015 while I was still living in a college dorm. Now every year since, I crave these when it starts getting cold out. They are so good, by far my favorite version of a pumpkin bar. I always make it as a double batch so I don’t run out right away and I’m about to start my yearly round of them again right now. — Aren B.
Recipe Video Tutorial
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree, (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon1
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips + 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
- Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don’t scramble it. Add the egg, pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Stir in 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Evenly sprinkle with 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, smoothly the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 32 to 33 minutes, or until done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. The moisture content in pumpkin varies, as do climates and ovens; bake until yours are done.
- Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can double this recipe and bake it in a 9×13-inch baking dish. The bake time should be roughly the same.
Absolutely! In fact, they taste better on the second day after the flavors have married. As a bonus, the bars get softer and moister.
More Pumpkin Bar Recipes:
Cooking With Pumpkin: Recipes That Go Beyond the Pie is my second cookbook. There’s over 50 pumpkin recipes including sweets, savory, drinks, and a photo for nearly every recipe!
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!!
Soft Pumpkin Praline Bars — SUPER soft pumpkin bars studded with chocolate chips, candied pecans, and plenty of pumpkin pie spice!! A FAST and EASY dessert that feeds a crowd for your fall and winter celebrations!!
Fudgy Pumpkin Spice Bars — Moist pumpkin bars so soft they’re like biting into pumpkin fudge!! The glaze is ahh-mazing!!!
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Blondies — Soft pumpkin bars, cinnamon-sugary snickerdoodles, and buttery blondies rolled into one! Super good!!
Chocolate Chip Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Bars — Incredibly gooey, soft, and chewy bars bursting with PUMPKIN and CHOCOLATE in every bite!! The vanilla spiced glaze complements these EASY bars just perfectly!!
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars — 🧡🤤 Classic cheesecake bars get an autumnal makeover in this recipe! A spiced pumpkin mixture is swirled into creamy cheesecake batter before being baked.
September 13, 2014 and republished September 13, 2024 with updated text.
Averie, these look and sound absolutely incredible totally pinning these! absolte pumpkin perfection!
Thanks!
Averie! I made your gingerbread molasses bars Thursday because I needed a quick, easy, yummy dessert for my in-laws this weekend (huge hit, BTW)–so funny that you posted these today! I am SO into bar cookies. Can’t wait to try them.
Oh I’m so glad you tried those gingerbread bars. One of my favorite bars I made last holiday season and if I could re-make them now and re-post them, I would :) But that wouldn’t be ‘new’. But yes, I LOVED those and these pumpkin bars have that same really dense texture with chocolate!
I’ve made the gingerbread bars 3 or 4 times, actually. They are becoming a “staple” which is the highest compliment you can give a recipe, in my opinion!
Yes that IS the highest compliment, thanks for telling me they’re in full rotation!
These look so delicious Averie! So moist and packed with pumpkin and plenty of chocolate chips. I will try my best, when I make these, to wait for a day before I tuck in, but, for me, that would be impossible! Pinned :D
Thanks for pinning!
These look absolutely incredible. And thanks for writing a book dedicated to pumpkin. It’s my favorite ingredient to bake with!
This looks heavenly! Pumpkin is my kryptonite too, that’s why fall is one if my favorite seasons – pumpkin everything!
These look so perfectly ooey-gooey. Huge congrats on your second book – so impressed!
Thank you :)
Hahaha. The pumpkin bars I made are with white chocolate. I’m not posting them any time soon, lol. :) I love the gooey-ness of these! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning and NOTHING can compete with those brownies you just posted. Omg!!
You had me at pumpkin. And that pumpkin bundt cake? And the pumpkin banana bread with cream cheese frosting? Just yes.
“I always spice my pumpkin recipes with a heavy hand…” Yes! I agree that this is so important to avoid blandness. These look fabulous!
Oh these blondies look so good!! So true on giving pumpkin recipes some extra spice. I was at a party last week and there were pumpkin bars…with no spice in them. Bland and boring!! These aren’t boring at all, PINNED!!
Thanks for pinning and yes without the proper amt of spice, it’s like eating a…squash bar for dessert. Ummm, no thanks :)
Adding pumpkin and chips to your blondie base is genius (and chocolate just goes so well with so much). I think I’d have to bake these before bed to resist them until the next day. I love things that taste even better after some time has passed. I had a sudden craving for your roasted winter squash salad when I spotted delicata in the store (no kabocha yet) so I’m excited for lunch today!!
Yes, totally if you can resist for a day or so, pumpkin, banana bread, and gingerbread/molasses things all seem to get better with age!
And I spotted kab squash in my regular grocery store this week! Didn’t buy any because it’s 90-92F here this week. We always get this weather in Sept but I can’t quite roast squash yet, but pumpkin desserts, I’m in :)
Moist pumpkin, and chocolate chips, how can it get any better!
I love how simple this recipe is! It’s always nice to have a couple recipes on hand that I can whip up in a snap. Plus, chocolate and pumpkin? Perfection.
Loving this pumpkin bar recipe! It’s studded with chocolate chips! Pinned!
Thanks, Anna!
Mmmm…. looking good! I can almost smell those bars baking in the oven right now. I need to make them ASAP!
These bars look divine….I love your ability to show in your photography how moist your bars and cookies are…my list of your recipes to make is increasingly growing….already preordered your pumpkin cookbook and can’t wait to get it.
Thanks for the compliments on my photography and thank you for preordering my book! :)