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Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

ByMichelle Palin First Published Last Update:

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A favorite fall potluck treat, these gluten-free pumpkin bars are cake-like and covered with a delicious cream cheese frosting! Just like gluten-free pumpkin cake, only in an easily hand-held version! One of the best gluten-free pumpkin desserts I’ve ever had!

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. These cake-like bars are a favorite fall treat. No fork needed!

Every October, I pick up a few cans of pumpkin so that I can make these yummy gluten-free pumpkin bars with their delicious cream cheese frosting. These and my gluten-free apple crisp are my two go-to fall recipes that I bring to parties and potlucks!

These spiced, cake-like pumpkin bars taste exactly the same and have the same texture as when I made them with regular flour. No one can tell they are gluten-free bars, which is always my goal in baking gluten-free.

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bar Recipe. These spiced, cake-like bars are a perfect fall treat.

 


I love that this recipe makes a large pan of treats, and I frequently make them in the fall to take to group gatherings.

I brought these each of the past two weeks to our small group meeting from our church. We have gathered with the same 5 families for several years now, every Sunday night, in a friend’s home. It is a wonderful time of fellowship, and always involves yummy food. This group of friends have always been willing to be testers of my latest baking creation. Two of the gals have to eat wheat-free, so they are glad that I’m bringing desserts they can have.

Ingredients for gluten-free pumpkin bars

Notes on Ingredients and Substitutions for these gluten-free pumpkin bars:

  • Pumpkin: You’re using a small, 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin. Not pumpkin pie filling. Not the large cans. As brands vary and pumpkins vary, you’ll find that the color of these bars can vary. If I get a particularly orange can of pumpkin, my bars are more orange. When I use Trader Joe’s organic canned pumpkin, my bars are much lighter colored. Tastes the same either way though! 
  • Applesauce: I use a homemade, unsweetened applesauce or store-bought unsweetened applesauce. I wouldn’t recommend chunky applesauce. If you don’t have any applesauce on hand, you can replace the amount called for with an equal amount of oil.
  • As always, I only recommend baking with a good quality all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. All flour blends are not created equal! I recommend avoiding flour blends that contain any bean flours or that are primarily rice flour, as you’ll get a more gritty result. This recipe, like pretty much all of my recipes, has been tested with successful results with gfJules gluten-free flour, King Arthur’s Measure for Measure gluten-free flour blend and Authentic Foods Multi-Blend and I recommend them all.
  • Xanthan gum – Most gluten-free flour blends contain xanthan or guar gum. If the flour blend you use for this recipe does have xanthan or guar, then omit the xanthan listed in the recipe. If your flour blend doesn’t have either, then you need to add xanthan gum. I order this xanthan gum from Amazon and each bag lasts me a year or more, even with as much baking as I do!

You can see in this photo, that the pumpkin bars are more orange from the canned pumpkin I used that time. Again, taste is still the same, just color can vary depending on your pumpkin can!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars Recipe.

Can these pumpkin bars be made dairy-free?

Without the frosting, these gluten-free pumpkin bars are dairy-free already, as long as you use oil in them. I have made these with corn oil, vegetable oil, and melted butter, and have really not noticed any difference in how they turn out. So feel free to use your favorite oil, stick butter alternative, or butter.

If you need to make dairy-free pumpkin bars, you could definitely leave off the icing recipe and use your own non-dairy icing. Or simply take advantage of one of the new dairy-free cream cheese substitutes that are available! Then you would follow my icing recipe as indicated, just swapping for the dairy-free cream cheese and a butter alternative.

These pumpkin bars are made in a large rimmed jelly roll pan. Jelly roll pans come in a variety of sizes. As you use different sized pans, just be sure to watch the baking time, and check for doneness. Obviously a smaller pan will yield taller bars, and require a little longer to bake than a bigger pan that’s yielding thinner bars. The main thing is to make sure the sides of your pan are 1″ or more.

Pan of frosted gluten-free pumpkin bars

I recently bought this USA Pan half sheet pan with lid to use for this recipe and it worked very well. I loved having the raised lid on it so I could transport the treats to another house and nothing was touching the frosting. It is 17.25 x 12.25″ and I wouldn’t recommend going any bigger than those dimensions, as your bars will get very thin.

The bars made using this pan are thinner than the bars you see pictured above as those were done in a 11×15″ pan that I have, that doesn’t have a lid for transporting. So take your pick on sizes and just adjust cooking time accordingly.

USA Pan Half sheet with lid carrying gluten-free pumpkin bars

You can cut these bars to whatever size you prefer. The gluten-free pumpkin squares pictured here are actually a little larger than I usually cut them when I bring to events. I often go a little smaller, people can always come back for seconds!

Looking for more recipes that use canned pumpkin? Try my gluten-free pumpkin muffin recipe – a favorite here for breakfast! This sweet gluten-free pumpkin bread with streusel and maple glaze is decadent! This vegetarian gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe from my friend Cindy looks like one my kids would like slices of in the morning! 

My favorite fall cookies are these gluten-free pumpkin oatmeal cookies. These gluten-free pumpkin spice beignets have been on my want to make list for a while now!! And how fun are these gluten-free pumpkin cake pops?!

I hope you’ll try these gluten-free pumpkin bars! Please come back and rate them and leave a comment after you try them! Enjoy!

Gluten-free Cake-like Pumpkin Bars

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars Recipe:

Yield: 28-32 servings

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. These cake-like bars are a favorite fall treat. No fork needed!

These cake-like spiced gluten-free pumpkin bars are frosted with a delicious cream cheese frosting.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups good all-purpose gluten-free flour blend*
  • 1 tsp. xanthan gum*
  • 3 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 small can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) 
  • 1/2 cup oil or melted unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, xanthan gum (*if needed), cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, oil or melted butter, applesauce, pumpkin, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  3. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture. Mix just until the flour is mixed in.
  4. Spread in an ungreased rimmed pan, called a jelly roll pan. See note below.
  5. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs or clean. Cool on wire rack.
  6. In a small mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or stand mixer to beat together the frosting ingredients until well mixed. (I typically add the powdered sugar a half cup at a time so it doesn't all blow up in my face.)
  7. Frost the bars once they have cooled completely.
  8. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

*This recipe has been tested numerous times successfully with each of these flours: gfJules flour, King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, and Gluten Free Mama's almond flour blend.

*If your gluten-free flour blend has xanthan gum or guar gum in it already, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.

See blog post for substitutions and notes on ingredients.

Jelly roll pans come in a variety of sizes. Just be sure it has at least 1" sides. I've linked the pan I'm using and liking below.

© Michelle @ MyGluten-freeKitchen.com
Cuisine: American / Category: Bars & Brownies
Pin these to your gluten-free desserts Pinterest board:

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

I’ve also got an entire board of gluten-free pumpkin recipes on Pinterest!

I hope you and your friends and family enjoy these gf pumpkin bars as much as mine!

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96 Comments

  1. I am thrilled to have these in my oven right now. This is my first GF holiday and these are replacing pumpkin pie all together on our dinner table tomorrow.

    The only change I made vs. the last time when I followed the recipe to the letter is I am adding a little pumpkin spice and cutting down the powdered sugar in the frosting. Can’t wait to see how they turn out this time.

    Thanks for all of the great recipes!

    Reply

  2. Oh my! Michelle, those are calling my name! I love anything pumpkin, so I know I’m a sucker for recipes like this, but this one truly sounds delish! Thanks for sharing!!!
    ~jules

    Reply

  4. I forgot the baking soda, but it didn’t seem to matter as they rose just fine with the baking powder. I added some clove and nutmeg and I used coconut oil. I like the flavor it adds and they turned out super moist. I used half the sugar in the cream cheese frosting since I like more of the cream cheese flavor to come through.

    Reply

  7. I have these in the oven now! Ran out of my regular sugar so I used some dark brown sugar. Excited to try another one of your recipes!! I’ve been baking so much & really enjoying it =)

    Reply

      1. It turned out pretty dense & rich, yet still yummy! I definately plan to make them again soon with regular sugar =) I’m in the kitchen baking & cooking so much! I’ve found I love it more and more, with so many great recipes! Gluten free can taste amazing!!!!

        Reply

  8. I made this recipe tonight, but didn’t have cream cheese….so I improvised with a gf oatmeal streusel topping! YUM!

    Reply

  9. I have these in the oven right now. I made mine dairy free using coconut oil and I used the last of a couple of flours including Hodgson Mills baking mix, coconut flour, almond flour and rice flour- here’s to hoping they don’t disappoint! Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

    1. Robyne,
      I haven’t tried it. The pumpkin part would be fine, but the frosting would be the difficult part. You could try cutting them up, then flash freeze them, then individually wrap the frozen ones. To use, make sure to remove the wrap before thawing, otherwise the frosting would stick to the wrap.

      Reply

  11. Hi- These look amazing. Did you use the Jules flour blend or the Mama’s. Just wanted to have an exact replica. Thanks so much!
    -Angela

    Reply

    1. Cody, Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know that it was successful for you! I hadn’t heard of Cooqi flour so I’m checking it out now. Glad to know that it worked well in this recipe too. I hope you’ll try it out in other recipes from my blog as well. ~Michelle

      Reply

  14. Made these last night and they are divine! They are moist, full of fall flavor, and the icing is to die for! People in the office couldn’t tell they were gluten free and said the recipe is perfect.
    As I was out of all-purpose GF flour mix, I used the four flour bean mix from one of Bette Hagman’s books. For anyone doing that, I would recommend adding choco chips or something to offset the sorghum taste a bit! Otherwise, no complaints.
    Thanks so much for this recipe! I plan on making it many many more times.

    Reply