Looking for a quick easy and healthy recipe to have at hand when the 3pm slump strikes, the kids come home hungry from school or you need a quick breakfast on the run that doesn’t weigh you down? Then look no further than these pumpkin spice bars!

I have made and perfected this recipe countless times over the years and let me just reassure you that these pumpkin spice bars don’t need to be pumpkin spice bars at all. You can replace the pumpkin puree with apple puree and have apple bars (my favourite!) or replace it with banana and have banana bars etc. This recipe is veeery forgiving – you can play around with different grains, different sweeteners (or omit sweetener altogether) and it will always work!

Ingredients:
3 flax eggs (3 tbs ground flaxseed dissolved in 9 tbs water or plant milk and left to thicken)
3 cups rolled oats
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup pumpkin puree (or apple sauce or other fruit/veg puree)
cinnamon and other spices to taste
pinch of salt
1 cup soy milk or other plant milk
1/4 cup coconut sugar or other sweetener (may be omitted)
sultanas or other dried fruit and seeds (half a cup)

Method:
Preheat fan-forced oven to 180°C. Line or grease a 20×30 cm baking tin. Stir all ingredients together and let rest for 20 minutes – the longer the better! Pour into prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top. Let cool completely before you slice into squares.

Substitutions and adjustments:

As for oats, you can use quick or rolled oats, the rolled oats give a better texture though.

Sweetener: I have made these many times, including with raw sugar, coconut sugar, stevia, honey, and maple syrup and they all work well. As the oats, apple sauce and dried fruit are naturally sweet you can even omit sweetener altogether.

Milk: You can use any plant milk you like. I used soy milk to keep it nut free, but feel free to use nut milks if you don’t need the bars to be nut free.

Add-ins: These bars are very low in fat as they are free of oil, butter and eggs. The fat only derives from the natural fat in the oats and the seeds. If you follow a very low fat diet, omit the seeds and just add dried fruit.

Flax eggs: If you eat eggs, you can use 2 whole eggs instead of the aquafaba.

Pumpkin puree/apple sauce: mashed banana works well if you don’t have apple sauce, or any type of “baby food” purees. I’ve made these with pumpkin purée with great results.

Enjoy!

Nat xoxo