Nutella Pumpkin Spice Bars

I find most of the recipes I use online, and that is always the first place that I look when I am finding a recipe to use up an ingredient. My husband and I often visit my Mom to help her with things around the house. Recently when we were there, I came across a Better Homes & Gardens magazine that had a fantastic muffin pictured on the cover. There were other great recipes in the magazine, and my mom said she had read it already, so I brought it home.

I can’t think of the last time I found a recipe in a magazine, but this recipe was one that I knew would be good. While pumpkin isn’t my favorite ingredient, I tried to make at least one pumpkin recipe per year. These, with Nutella, sounded fantastic. The recipe was pretty easy to assemble, although swirling chocolate/Nutella into batter can be a challenge. This time it went fairly well, as you heat up the Nutella in advance to make it more supple.

The batter for these bars is nice and smooth. Canned pumpkin is difficult to measure, so I measured it by weight. That’s a good tip for anything difficult to measure or is super sticky (peanut butter, etc.). Pour the batter in the pan, swirl with Nutella, then bake. I wasn’t sure how long to bake the bars; I opted for the longer time. Still, these bars are soft and cake-like, which is what I expect for most recipes with pumpkin. I do like the spice flavor of these, and combined with Nutella, make a very tasty bar cookie!

Nutella Pumpkin Spice Bars
1-1/3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup Nutella

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat together the pumpkin, vegetable oil, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on medium until smooth. With the mixer running on low, gradually add flour mixture, until the mixture is not lumpy.

Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan, smoothing the top. Place the Nutella in a bowl and microwave for 30-60 seconds to soften. Drizzle the Nutella over the batter and then using a thin knife, swirl the Nutella into the pumpkin batter. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a thin knife inserted into the batter comes out clean. Cool for at least an hour before removing from the pan and cutting into bars.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, October 2025

Maple Pumpkin Butter Bars

It's been rainy and dreary recently in the Seattle area, so while I was at first hesitant to make a cookie with so many flavors of fall, it just seemed appropriate. I had planned to make these last fall and I simply ran out of time. I had already scouted out some pumpkin butter, as it isn’t the easiest thing to find, and I was ready. Maple and pumpkin flavors in February? I figured it wasn’t too much of a problem.

While I am not the biggest fan of the texture of pumpkin puree, I have used a few varieties of fruit butter and I prefer that texture. It isn’t quite so heavy, and I prefer that. Initially, I was worried that I might not be able to find pumpkin butter, but one of the local jam/preserves vendors had it and I was thrilled. If you are unable to find pumpkin butter, feel free to use another type of fruit butter. Pumpkin puree nay work, but the texture of the bars would be different.

I have found that when I get home from work, I either get lots and lots of things done, or I sit on the sofa and get little accomplished. I wanted to get things done so I made these bars as soon as I got home. They mix together quickly, as long as you have the ingredients on hand. The original recipe had you brown the butter, but I skipped that. I also simplified the glaze, making a powdered sugar/maple syrup glaze which worked beautifully. These are typically what I would make in the fall, but these are so good that they are enjoyable any time of year.

Maple Pumpkin Butter Bars
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup powdered sugar
 3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, pumpkin butter, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium until the ingredients come together. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. One the flour almost disappears from the dough, remove the bowl from the mixer. Fold in the white chocolate chips by hand and ensure that the dough is cohesive.

Spread the dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top as best you can.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the bars are set and begin to brown along the edges. Remove the bars from the oven and allow the bars to cool before adding the glaze.

Once cool, take the bars from the pan and remove the foil. Make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Whisk to start combining the ingredients. Continue whisking and add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, adding additional milk until the glaze is thick but smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the bars. Allow the glaze to set before cutting the bars into squares.

Recipe from Half-Baked Harvest

Pumpkin and Honey Cookies

For those of you who read this blog with any regularity, you likely know that I am not the biggest fan of pumpkin. The flavor is fine, but I find that when I use pumpkin in baking it makes things gummy, and that’s a texture that I don’t like. I came across pumpkin spice spread and thought that it was similar to apple butter, so I figured I could use it in a recipe. This recipe was perfect, and as it contained a small amount of the spread, I wasn’t concerned it would be gummy.

These cookies were originally for Rosh Hashanah, as they contained apple and honey. I do love baking with apple butter, but I figured pumpkin would be just as nice. You could likely use any jam or preservative, and that would change the taste of the cookies, but I think it would be interesting! The pumpkin flavor, or any other flavor that you choose to use, would be very subtle.

I found the dough to these cookies to be quite dry, so I ended up adding an egg yolk to help bind the dough together. The original recipe called for the dough to be refrigerated for an hour, but I’m not sure that’s necessary, as usually dough is chilled to reduce stickiness. These baked up nicely, and the icing is simple. I increased the quantities for the icing as I was running out as I topped the cookies. As I said, the flavor of these cookies is subtle, although the honey adds a lovely sweetness. No matter what, they are the picture perfect fall cookie.

Pumpkin and Honey Cookies
¾ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup pumpkin spice spread
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ¼ cups flour
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Egg, if required

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2-4 tablespoon water
Colored sprinkles

In a large mixer bowl, beat the shortening, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until combined. Add the pumpkin spread, cinnamon and vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt. If the dough seems too dry, mix in an egg yolk or part of an egg to help the dough bind together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand to about ½” thick.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set and slightly browned on the bottom. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, make the icing: in a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, honey and 2 tablespoons of water. If the icing is too thick to spread, add additional water until it is spreadable.

Spread a small amount of icing on each cookie and top with colored sprinkles.

Recipe from The Monday Box

Caramel Toffee Pumpkin Cookies

If you know anything about me, you may likely know that I don’t really like pumpkin pie. This time of year, I come across many recipes that use pumpkin, but they aren’t really my favorite. I find that when you use pumpkin or other similar ingredients, they add too much moisture to the dough, and the cookies are soft and even sticky. That’s not the texture I care for, so I am extremely careful when looking at any recipe that contains pumpkin.

But when is pumpkin not pumpkin? I often make sweet potato pie as I like that more than pumpkin pie (but let’s be honest, I usually make apple pie). In my cupboard I have canned sweet potato, and I thought about using that in a pumpkin cookie recipe. It should work! From the can, sweet potato puree and pumpkin puree look the same and have those great scents of fall. It’s a little strange to use potato in a cookie, but not too bad when you consider it an alternative to pumpkin.

Looking at the original picture of these, I knew they wouldn’t be sticky or cakey. They were thin and soft, but still had a good chew. They mix together quickly and don’t require any refrigeration, which was convenient. It’s a little difficult to tell when these cookies brown, but they do start to color a bit. The cookies will be puffed when removed from the oven, but then flatten into a nice flat cookie, sprinkled with toffee flecks. The cookies are soft but retain a nice chew. They taste like fall, but with a subtle pumpkin/sweet potato flavor!

Caramel Toffee Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin/sweet potato puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits
1/2 cup caramel bits

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix on medium to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt, mixing until the dough almost comes together. Add the toffee bits and caramel bits and stir them into the dough using a spatula.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, so that each mound of dough is about 1-1/2” wide.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown. The cookies will be puffy when removed from the oven but will flatten as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Chunky Chef

Pumpkin Almond Biscotti

If you follow this blog at all, you probably know that I don’t like pumpkin very much. This time of year, pumpkin is everywhere, and I know that a lot of people like the flavor. In trying to rotate different types of recipes, I decided that this week I was going to make biscotti. I knew I hadn’t made pumpkin biscotti, and they couldn’t possibly be too soft, which is what I don’t like about pumpkin. As I have a friend at work that doesn’t eat dairy, I knew that these would be easy to translate into a dairy-free version, which is what I have here.

I was originally going to make a different recipe, but it was not well written. There was butter written into the recipe ingredients, but in reading the recipe it never said what to do with the butter. I found this one instead, which I like, but this recipe calls for individual spices rather than pumpkin pie spice. It’s probably for the best that I chose this recipe as I didn’t even have pumpkin pie spice! Most recipes also call for a white chocolate drizzle, but white chocolate is not dairy-free friendly, so I switched to a chocolate glaze. I always try to have dairy-free chocolate chips on hand.

This recipe follows the traditional biscotti format: make the dough, shape into logs, bake, slice, and bake again. This dough was so sticky, so I added additional flour, which is reflected in the recipe here. Even so, the dough was so sticky and seems to stick to everything. I eventually got the logs shaped, and after that it worked well. I should have baked the biscotti longer the first time, as my cookies are still on the soft side even after the second bake. That’s ok, I don’t like cookies to be too crunchy. I think these are even better with the chocolate drizzle, but I will leave it up to you to choose.

Pumpkin Almond Biscotti

1/2 cup vegan butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

I cup sliced almonds, toasted

6 ounces dairy-free chocolate

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the vegan butter, sugar, and brown sugar and mix on medium until combined. Add the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix on medium until smooth. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Stir in the toasted almonds. The dough will be soft.

Divide the dough into halves; shape each half into a log, approximately 4” x 10”, and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until lightly browned. Leave the oven on but allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Transfer the logs to a cookie sheet and slice into ¾” slices. Place back in the baking sheet, allowing the biscotti to sit on the bottom edge, as though the logs were together but slightly separated.

Bake for 15-20 additional minutes, until the cookies are dried. Allow to cool before adding the drizzle.

In a medium bowl, combine the chocolate and shortening. Microwave, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Drizzle over the cooled biscotti. Allow the chocolate to set before serving.

Recipe from Holly Jolly Holidays

Glazed Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

This week, I had a couple of different cookies to choose from. I made sure that I had all of the ingredients and then I wait until inspiration strikes when the time comes to bake. I had some pumpkin remaining from last week’s recipe, so a couple of the options called for pumpkin. As someone who isn’t that much of a pumpkin fan, I really liked last week’s cookies. I figured I would give these sugar cookies a try. Another bonus: they don’t need any refrigeration so they are quick to put together.

I’m not sure if there is a specific definition for a sugar cookie; these are certainly different than the classic sugar cookie that I usually make. It is interesting that these call for butter and oil. I guess the oil gives a softer texture, but that isn’t something that I worry about in any recipe containing pumpkin. They have a great mix of spices, which is always a good thing.

These mix up with no concerns. I even hadn’t allowed the butter to warm quite enough and the cookies still turned out. The cookies don’t brown at all, so it’s hard to know when they are done baking. They seemed to be set, so I hoped for the best. Glazing them while they are warm is different, and the first batch out of the oven I used quite a lot of glaze. The cookies are nice a soft, and don’t have that gummy texture that can be an issue with pumpkin recipes. While these cookies aren’t quite as stellar as last week’s recipe, I’m beginning to like pumpkin a little bit more.

Glazed Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

4 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

3 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, oil, pumpkin, sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix on medium until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.

Scoop the dough into one-inch mounds on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies to about 1/3” with a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. The cookies won’t brown much, but will be firm to the touch.

While the cookies bake, in a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, water, cinnamon and cloves. Once the cookies are out of the oven, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes. Move the cookies to a cooling rack and spoon about 1-1/2 teaspoons glaze on each cookie. Slightly spread the glaze and then allow to set.

Recipe from Lauren’s Latest

Pumpkin Cheesecake Filled Brownies

It’s fall, and the world becomes crazy for pumpkin. If you read this blog regularly, you might remember that I don’t like pumpkin very much. Yet I feel compelled to make a couple of pumpkin things each year. I don’t like that pumpkin tends to lend a sticky feel to anything you bake with it, so my goal is to find recipes where that sticky texture in minimized. I’ve found a couple of recipes that I think will be great.

This recipe only calls for ½ cup of pumpkin, so I figured that it would lend the flavor of pumpkin without the strange texture. You mix the pumpkin with cream cheese and pumpkin pie spice, which then becomes the filling of a lovely brownie. Pumpkin pie spice is simply a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. I thought I had some on hand, but I didn’t so I was able to just use my own combination of spices. I sometimes also use Chinese five spice powder, which I find to be very interesting in recipes.

These bars take some time, as you need to allow them to cool completely before topping with ganache and cutting into bars. I made the bars one day, put them in the refrigerator, and then finished them the next. This was very convenient, and worked the best for me as I had other plans the night I typically bake. These cut beautifully (use a warm knife so that the cuts are clean). The spicy flavor of the filling pairs so well with dark chocolate brownie. As someone who doesn’t like pumpkin all that much, these are so good and I can’t wait to make them again!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Filled Brownies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, shortening, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Divide the dough in halves. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium until smooth. Add the egg, pumpkin puree and pie spice and mix on medium until smooth. Spread the filling over the dough in the pan. Top with the remaining dough, covering the pumpkin filling as much as possible. The top layer won’t be perfect.

Bake for 30 minutes. Allow the bars to cool for 2 hours before topping.

Make the ganache topping. Place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Microwave the cream for 45-60 seconds, just before it boils. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Whisk the mixture, until it becomes dark and shiny. Pour the ganache over the cooled bars. Allow the chocolate to set for about 2 hours before cutting into bars. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Inside BruCrew Life