Easy Keto Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

My son Na is non-verbal, so I’ve learned to read what he likes by what he comes back to. He comes back to these keto pumpkin bars. Low carb baking has a reputation for turning out things that are fine, considering – and Na has never once been interested in “considering.”

These are soft, dense, heavily spiced, and buried under cream cheese frosting. Made with almond flour and a full can of pumpkin, they’re grain-free and gluten-free, and one 9×13 pan feeds a crowd through an entire fall weekend.

They’re also one of the best recipes I know for baking with kids, which I’ll get into below.

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure page.

Why these work

A whole can of pumpkin, straight in. Most keto pumpkin recipes get shy with the pumpkin because of moisture. Not here – the full 15 ounces goes in undrained, and the coconut flour handles it.

Two flours, doing different jobs. Almond flour brings richness and structure. Coconut flour absorbs the moisture almond flour can’t handle. Neither one alone gets you there.

A 10-minute rest. This is the step people skip and then wonder why their bars are gummy. More on that below.

Real cream cheese frosting. Not a glaze, not a drizzle. A proper thick layer.

Ingredients

For the bars:

• 3 cups (336g) superfine almond flour – I use Great Value Superfine Blanched
• 5 tablespoons coconut flour – Bob’s Red Mill
• 1 cup granular erythritol – Swerve
• 2½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice – McCormick
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 15 ounces canned pumpkin purée (one 15 oz can)
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• ½ batch keto cream cheese frosting, about 1¼ cups – the full recipe makes 2½ cups, so you’ll have enough left over to frost a batch of cookies too

A few ingredient notes

These are made with almond flour and are not nut-free. If you’re baking for someone with a tree nut allergy, this isn’t the recipe.

Use superfine blanched almond flour, not almond meal. Almond meal still has the skins and a coarser grind – you’ll get a gritty, speckled bar instead of a tender one.

Weigh the almond flour if you can. Brands vary from 96g to 112g per cup, which across three cups is nearly a half cup of difference. That’s the single most common reason a recipe comes out differently than it did for me.

Canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. “Canned pumpkin” and “canned pumpkin purée” are the same product – 100% pumpkin, nothing added – so either label works. Pumpkin pie filling is a different thing entirely: pre-sweetened and pre-spiced, and it’ll blow up both the flavor and your carb count.

Don’t swap the coconut flour out. It’s only 5 tablespoons, but coconut flour absorbs roughly ten times its weight in liquid. It’s doing the structural work that keeps these from being wet.

How to make keto pumpkin bars

1. Prep the pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment, leaving a lip on two sides so you can lift the whole slab out later. Almond flour sticks more than wheat, and wax paper is flammable, so don’t skip the parchment.

I used a 9.5 x 13.5, which is a common “9×13” in real kitchens – a little bigger than the name suggests, so the batter sits thinner and bakes a couple of minutes faster. Worth knowing before you set a timer.

2. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the almond flour, coconut flour, erythritol, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined. Whisking breaks up the air pockets almond flour loves to hold.

3. Mix the wet ingredients. In a second bowl, whisk the canned pumpkin with the eggs, melted butter, and vanilla until smooth. Straight from the can – no draining, no pressing. The coconut flour is already accounted for it.

4. Combine, then rest. Pour the wet into the dry and stir until smooth and uniformly colored. Then let the batter sit for 10 minutes. And no, this isn’t to be cruel – it’s science. The coconut flour hydrates slowly, and this rest is what keeps the bars from going gummy.

5. Spread and level. Scrape the batter into the pan and level it with an offset spatula. It’s a thick batter and will not self-level, so push it into the corners.

6. Bake 26 to 28 minutes. Start checking at 25 – especially if your pan runs slightly larger than a standard 9×13, because the batter sits thinner and bakes a touch faster. Done looks like golden edges, a center that springs back when pressed, and no wobble.

7. Cool completely. Cool in the pan on a rack for at least an hour. Frosting a warm slab means the frosting melts and slides straight off, so wait it out.

8. Frost and cut. Let the cream cheese frosting sit out 20 to 30 minutes and re-whip it briefly so it spreads without tearing. Spread it over the cooled slab, then lift the whole thing out by the parchment and cut into squares with a clean knife, wiping the blade between cuts.

Baking these with kids

This is where these bars really earn their place. Almost every step is kid-safe, and the few that aren’t are easy to fence off.

What they can do: press the pumpkin in the sieve, whisk the dry ingredients, crack and whisk the eggs, dump and stir, level the batter with the spatula, and spread the frosting.

What you keep: the melted butter, the oven, and the knife.

A few things make this recipe easier than most at a shared counter. Almond flour doesn’t poof – there’s no cloud of dust when it gets dumped in fast, the way there is with wheat. The batter is thick enough that vigorous stirring doesn’t throw anything. And because it’s grain-free, there’s no gluten to overwork, so an enthusiastic over-mix won’t toughen it the way it would a wheat cake. You genuinely cannot ruin this by stirring too hard, which is not true of most things.

The 10-minute rest turns out to be the best part. It’s a built-in pause with nothing to hurry – hands get washed, the counter gets wiped, and nobody has to be rushed through it. Then the hour of cooling gives you a second one.

Na’s job is frosting, and he takes it seriously.

Tips for success

• Weigh your almond flour. 336g is the target. Three cups scooped from the bag can vary by a lot depending on how packed it is.
• Slightly cooled butter, not hot. Hot butter will start cooking the eggs when you whisk them together.
• Don’t overbake. Almond flour bakes go from moist to dry fast. Pull them when the center springs back -they’ll firm up as they cool.
• Cut with a clean knife. Wipe between every cut. It’s the difference between bars that look like these and bars that look like a school bake sale.

How many bars this makes

Twenty-four, if you cut four across and six down. But that number isn’t handed down from anywhere – it’s just where I cut, and you should cut where it makes sense for you.

Three things actually decide it:

How rich you want each bar to be. These are dense. Twenty-four gives you a bar that’s roughly 2¼ inches square, which is a real dessert. Cut 32 and you get something closer to a two-bite square, which is often what you want on a table with other food on it.

Who’s eating them. Small squares get eaten. Big ones get half-eaten.

Your macros. This is the one that matters most and gets mentioned least. The pan is the pan – the carbs don’t change, only how you divide them. Cut 32 instead of 24 and your net carbs per bar drop by about a quarter. If you’re tracking tightly, cut smaller and count honestly rather than cutting big and rounding down.

Storage

Refrigerator: Because of the cream cheese frosting, these need to live in the fridge. Store in an airtight container up to 5 days.

Freezer: Freeze up to 3 months. I freeze them unfrosted, laid flat on a sheet pan until solid, then stacked with parchment between layers. Thaw in the fridge overnight and frost the day you serve them.

Make-ahead: Bake the slab a day early and leave it covered at room temperature, then frost and cut the day of.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use fresh pumpkin instead of canned?

You can, but it’s the one place I’d be cautious. Fresh purée runs wetter and varies a lot depending on the squash, so you may want to drain it even though you don’t need to with canned. Canned is the more predictable choice, and it’s what I used.

Why did mine turn out gummy?

Almost always the skipped rest, or under-drained pumpkin. Coconut flour needs those 10 minutes to absorb moisture; without them, it keeps absorbing after baking and you get a dense, sticky crumb.

Can I use only almond flour?

Not straight across. The coconut flour is absorbing moisture from a full can of pumpkin. Drop it and you’ll get a wet bar that won’t set.

Can I use a different sweetener?

Allulose works and gives a softer, moister bar, but it browns faster – drop your oven to 325°F and watch the edges. A monk fruit/erythritol blend swaps 1:1. Pure liquid sweeteners will throw off the moisture balance.

Can I make these dairy-free?

The bars, yes – swap the butter for melted coconut oil. The frosting is the problem; you’d need a dairy-free cream cheese, and results vary a lot by brand.

Do I have to drain the pumpkin?

No. I didn’t, and these came out exactly as pictured. A lot of keto pumpkin recipes tell you to press the moisture out, but with 5 tablespoons of coconut flour in the mix there’s plenty of absorption happening already. The only time I’d bother: if you open the can and there’s standing liquid pooled on top, pour that off. Don’t press it.

How many carbs are in these?

About 4.3g net carbs per bar when you cut 24 from a 9×13. Cut smaller and that number drops proportionally – 32 bars from the same pan lands around 3.2g each. Run your exact brands through a calculator, since almond flour and sweeteners vary.

Print

Want more like this? Grab all four free keto cookbooks – no sugar, no grains, no 40-ingredient recipes.

You might also like:

This Keto Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe Is High Key Mandatory For Low Carb Baking

Rebel Keto: The Girl’s Guide To Losing The Weight, Breaking The Rules & Having A Life Outside The Kitchen

22 Best Healthy Pumpkin Desserts & Recipes To Enjoy This Fall

How To Quit Sugar Without Losing Your Mind

26 Signs You May Be An Autism Mom

If You Liked This Recipe, Please Share It On Pinterest!