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I love pumpkin and chocolate together, and these Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars with chocolate chips are the perfect combination. They are thick and chewy and sweet and I love that they are low in fat.
Why I Love This Recipe
Thick and chewy – I love the texture of these bars! They are so thick and so chewy!
Chocolate – The chocolate chips add the perfect bit of sweetness.
Healthy swap – Swapping out the butter for pumpkin is a great way to make them a little better for you.
How to Make Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars
See the recipe card below for full, detailed instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease a large baking dish.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
- Stir in the rolled oats, then the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla.
- Finally stir in a cup of chocolate chips.
- Spread into the baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through in the middle.
Storage
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 6 months.
Important Tip!
There have been some comments that these bars turn out dry. This has never happened to me and here’s what I believe the reason is: In the recipe I use ROLLED OATS. This is NOT the quick cooking oats. Be sure that you are always using exactly what is called for in the recipe, or it’s possible, likely even that your finished product will not be the same.
Quick Cooking Oats look like THIS. They are made to cook quickly are therefore absorb a lot more liquid when baking. You want to use the Old Fashioned Rolled Oats in baking. They are not processed the same and therefore are the best for cooking. Hope this helps to explain!
Try These Pumpkin Treats Next
- Pumpkin Pie Baked French Toast
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake
- Pumpkin Dump Cake
Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 2 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 15- ounce can pure pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13″x9″ baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a stand mixer or a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder on low speed until combined.
- Stir in oats until combined.
- Stir in pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until combined.
- Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips until combined.
- Spread batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.
I’m an experienced baker, not many recipes I try don’t work out. These were so dry! I made them exactly as written. Need more liquid, butter or applesauce or something. There’s definitely potential but these turned out underwhelming.
Love these! So easy to make, easier then my own recipe and very tasteful! Reading some of the reviews I wonder why some didn’t like them or wanted to add oil or butter as they were already perfectly moist and delicious. I’m thinking it may have been the flour they used or bad baking powder as that can make a huge difference. Any way. We love these!
Those suggestions are both very possible. The oats make a difference as well. Thanks for your feedback – happy to hear that you enjoy them!
These bars are very dense and rather dry. I added a quarter stick of butter, it needed more. I like the idea of oatmeal in the bars, but somehow this recipe doesn’t ask for a redo.
Hi Ann, Adding butter changing the recipe and therefore the results. It really work great as is and doesn’t need additional ingrediets. Unfortunately, your 1 star review is based off of your own changes to the recipe.
I wish someone had proofread this recipe, as there is no shortening ir any kind – which was, I’m certain, an omission. I did everything just as instructed, It looked perfect coming out of the oven, was quite easy to cut, but when I put a square in my mouth it was dry as a bone! And right then I remembered – no coconut oil, no butter, nothing. Going to a function tomorrow and now I’ll have to stop at a supermarket or bakery. Terrible waste of some top-shelf chocolate chips.
So I
Hi Lily – There certainly wasn’t an omission and the recipe is great as written. The pumpkin puree actually acts in place of the fat to make them moist, and every time I’ve made them I’ve gotten rave reviews. Maybe you overmixed? That would definitely make them more dense. Or, is it possible that you used the wrong type of oats?
I wanted mine a bit more crumbly….but otherwise great flavor. I added 1 cup of walnuts and used white chocolate chips (only 1 cup) instead of the chocolate chips. Will play around with adding chia seed, date sugar etc. to boost health.
Love the feedback Laura! Thanks for the for stopping by.
K.
Why can’t you use pumpkin pie filling instead of puree? What will it do to the results?
Pumpkin pie filling has other things added, like sugar and spices. Pumpkin pie filling is just pure pumpkin, making it the best choice.
I wanted more pumpkin flavor!