Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars — These easy pumpkin bars are super soft and are like biting into a piece of rich pumpkin fudge! Loaded with chocolate and crazy good!!
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.
They’re 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. Melted butter, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, plenty of pumpkin pie spice, and chocolate chips are the key ingredients.
I always make sure to spice pumpkin and sweet potato recipes with a fairly heavy hand so they don’t taste bland. A pumpkin recipe that doesn’t give you a nice pop of prominent pumpkin flavor is such a disappointment, but you have nothing to worry about here.
There’s an abundance of chocolate in every bite and pumpkin and chocolate is such a winning combo.
Ingredients in Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Trust me when I say these pumpkin chocolate bars are going to be the BEST dessert you make this fall. In addition to being easy to prepare, the ingredients list is short.
To make these chocolate chip pumpkin bars, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Pumpkin puree
- Light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Cinnamon
- All-purpose flour
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
These are such easy pumpkin bars to make! Full instructions are given in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here’s an overview of how to make the pumpkin chocolate chip bars recipe:
- Whisk together the wet ingredients, then stir in the dry.
- Fold the chocolate chips in last. Be careful not to overmix!
- Turn the batter into a greased and foil-lined 8×8-inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with chocolate chips, then bake until a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
Can I Add Other Mix-Ins?
Most likely, yes! I added 1 1/4 cups of chocolate chips to the batter. Feel free to mix and match up to 1 1/4 cups mix-ins total.
I think a blend of baking chips, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and /or dried fruit would all work nicely.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes, you can double this recipe and bake it in a 9×13-inch baking dish. The bake time should be roughly the same.
Can This Recipe Be Made in Advance?
Absolutely! In fact, they taste better on the second day after the flavors have married. As a bonus, the bars get softer and moister.
How to Store Leftovers
Chocolate chip pumpkin spice bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Tips for Making Pumpkin Chocolate Bars
Note that this recipe calls for plain pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin pie filling is pre-sweetened and would make these bars far too sweet.
The recipe only makes an 8-inch pan and if you have pumpkin fiends in your house, the bars will probably be gone in a day. Feel free to double the recipe if needed.
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Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, melted
- 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.
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More Pumpkin Chocolate Desserts:
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 Chocolate Chip Cake — This soft and moist pumpkin cake is loaded with chocolate in every bite!! An EASY one-bowl fall dessert that’s perfect for impromptu entertaining or anytime a pumpkin craving strikes!!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese-Filled Brownies — The brownies are fudgy, not at all cakey, ridiculously rich, boldly chocolaty, and it’s a win to get a layer of pumpkin cheesecake inside your brownies.
The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread — This pumpkin chocolate chip bread is truly the best homemade pumpkin bread you’ll ever make. It’s moist, packed with chocolate chips, and tastes like fall!
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are bursting with chocolate chips in every bite! They’re thick, hearty, perfectly chewy, and not at all cakey.
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!!
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!!
Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies — Rich, fudgy brownies made with pumpkin and chocolate chips!! An EASY, no mixer pumpkin brownie recipe that’s FASTER than using a boxed mix! Bring on pumpkin spice season!!
These look AMAZING!!! My question is- have you or anyone else tried using a Gluten Free flour instead?? I’m eager to try baking these but with brown rice flour or almond flour instead. Thanks for your help!
No I have not tried using GF flour. I would use a GF blend rather than just 1 type – and not all almond flour since that’s a nut and nuts + pumpkin = super dense, heavy, batter. So use a blend, i.e. Bob’s, Pamela’s, etc.
These are incredible! I was looking for a quick pumpkin chocolate cookie/bar when I found this recipe on Pinterest. The bars are amazing! One of the best pumpkin recipes I’ve ever made.
Thanks for saying that this is one of the best pumpkin recipes you’ve ever tried! That’s awesome! So glad you’re happy and there’s 50+ more in my pumpkin cookbook – sounds like you’re as big of a pumpkin fan as I am :)
Oh my God – I made these yesterday and just had my first piece. Delicious! It has COMPLETELY hit the pumpkin spot.
I followed the recipe exactly and they came out perfect. Thank you! I love it when things I find on Pinterest actually work out!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out exactly as advertised and it hit the spot!
Really delicious…ate them warm out of the oven. Next time I will only use 1tsp
pumpkin pie spice instead of 2…. a little bit too much pumpkin pie spice for my taste.
Ok just dial it back then a bit next time. The flavors marry and meld as time passes so if you have any left on days 2-3, you may actually like them as is! Sort of like chili, it gets better after a couple days. Glad you’re enjoying them!
The bars are in the oven!!! We didn’t have chocolate chips so, I used white chocolate chips instead. Can’t wait to see how they turn out. :)
I only have a 9×12 pan so I increased the measurements keeping the same proportions.
I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 (the difference in size between a 8×8 and 9×12 pan). The + next to measurements means to fill the measuring cups just a little extra without leveling the ingredients off because the true conversion is 1.6 which multiplied doesn’t make the standard measurements.
Also, since you can’t add half an egg, I replaced the half egg with banana. (Applesauce would work too)
Here’s the converted recipe. Very delicious!
+ means just a tiny bit extra
• Unsalted butter (melted)
¾ cup (1 stick and a half)
• 1 large egg and
¼ a banana OR 3 ¾ tbsp applesauce
• 1 cup+ pumpkin puree
• 1 ½ cup+ brown sugar (packed)
• 1 ½ tbsp+ vanilla extract
• 3 tsp+ pumpkin pie spice
• 1 ½ tsp+ cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Sprinkle 3 tbsp on top
I made these last night and they are very good. They are moist and chocolaty. The pumpkin pie spice I used has a lot of cinnamon in, so that combined with the cinnamon in the recipe caused the cinnamon flavor to overwhelm the other flavors a bit. So I would recommend cutting the cinnamon down to 1/4 teaspoon or so if your pumpkin pie spice has a significant amount of cinnamon. I also made these in a 9×9″ instead of 8×8 pan, so reduced the baking time to 30 minutes. Next time, I’ll probably reduce it a bit more because the edges got a bit dry.
I love a lot of cinnamon but yes, with spices and seasoning things, always season to taste. I love the 8×8 pan because they turn out thicker and yes, I’d imagine if you were baking in a 9×9 you’d have to reduce baking time since they’ll be thinner but I have never tried in a 9×9 pan. Glad you enjoyed them and thanks for trying the recipe!
These look delicious! Oh wait, all of your bar recipes do. My friend made these over the weekend and they looked just liked your photos. :) YUM.
Oh that is awesome to hear your friend made these and they turned out just like my photos! I’m glad you got to try them! :)
This recipe is PHENOMENAL! I baked this on Sunday and brought them into work today. People cannot stop raving about this recipe and this is one of the few recipes that truly look as good in real life as they do in your picture. I will definitely have to try other recipes on this site.
Thanks for trying these, Jessica, and my favorite type of comments are yours…where the recipe totally lives up to expectations, turns out as shown, and everyone is happy :)
I don’t think they sell pumpkin pie spice here in Australia, do you know what spices are in it so I can try to make it from scratch?
I actually have a recipe for my favorite homemade version in my cookbook, which I linked in the post.
Or you could try google.
Wow-my mouth is watering! All of your pumpkin recipes are dreamy. These bars lasting longer than a day? Not a chance, they may not even make it to the oven…I’m a big fan of cuddling a snuggly bowl of batter on the couch.
What do you think would happen if I added 1/4 cup more pumpkin?
Not sure since I haven’t tried it but they possibly could get almost TOO moist. You may then have to add more flour. I would make the recipe as written and if you see fit, make it again with tweaks, but I loved these bars, as is.
Is there much leeway in terms of how much more flour I can add? Is 1/4 cup more okay or too much?
Hey Averie, I wanted to know if the texture of the bars are more mushy or fudge-y. And do you think that this recipe could work without eggs?
I addressed the texture in the 4th sentence of the blog post. They’re soft, but not ‘mushy’. Dense and fudgy.
And I haven’t tried without eggs so cannot speak to if it will work, however pumpkin recipes are generally fairly forgiving when it comes to veganizing them. However I have no idea what that will do to the texture.
You had me at pumpkin + chocolate. Yum!
You have seriously outdone yourself here, Averie! They look so chewy I can hardly breathe! I agree about the heavy handed spicing. No one wants a bland pumpkin dessert.