Pumpkin and caramel. Why have I never tried this combination before? It was perfect. You really need to try these flavors out together.
As you can probably tell from all my fall and holiday flavored recipes, I really love this time of year. Especially the flavors that come with it. I pretty much use pumpkin all year long, but I some how use it a little more this time of the year.
I used caramel extract in these blondie bars to give them a really good caramel flavor without all the sugar and calories of real caramel. If you do not have caramel extract, you could sub for butter extract or vanilla extract and they will still taste amazing. I got my caramel extract from Walmart, most grocery stores will sell it.
The pumpkin flavor was helped by some pumpkin spice baking chips I found at the store. They were actually really good. I am glad I found them. You can never have enough baking chips.
I kind of just had to wing it for the caramel sauce that I drizzled on top. It was just 3 ingredients. Confectioners powdered stevia, sugar free maple syrup, and caramel extract. Just mix and drizzle on top of the bars. It wasn’t as authentic as a real caramel sauce, but it still tasted pretty dang good.
PrintPumpkin Caramel Protein Blondie Bars
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 12 bars 1x
Description
Moist and dense pumpkin caramel protein blondie bars. There were pumpkin spice baking chips in the batter and then topped with a sugar free caramel drizzle.
Ingredients
Bars
- 1 1/4 cup (155g) whole wheat flour
- 2 scoops (67g) Musclepharm cinnamon bun combat protein powder
- 1/4 cup granulated stevia in the raw
- 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup (240g) canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 whole large egg
- 2 tbsp. (42g) organic light agave syrup*
- 2 tbsp. (42g) honey
- 1/4 cup (56g) coconut oil
- 1 tsp. caramel extract*
- 2 tbsp. (28g) pumpkin spice baking chips
Caramel Sauce
- 2 tbsp. confectioners powdered xylitol sweetener*
- 2 tbsp. sugar free maple syrup*
- 1/4 tsp. caramel extract*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Mix whole wheat flour, protein powder, stevia, baking powder, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl.
- In a separate large bowl mix pumpkin, almond milk, egg, agave, honey, and caramel extract.
- Heat coconut oil in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds or until melted. Add coconut oil to wet ingredients and mix well.
- Add dry ingredients to wet slowly while continuously mixing. Make sure batter is mixed well, but be careful not to over mix. Fold in pumpkin spice chips.
- Pour into a 9×9 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let bars completely cool for about 30-45 minutes.
- Mix powdered xylitol, sugar free maple syrup and caramel extract. Drizzle caramel sauce over blondies and slice into 12 bars.
Notes
For the agave and honey, you could use all honey or all agave. Pure maple syrup would work well too.
For the caramel extract, it can be replaced with butter extract or vanilla extract, but it will not have as much of a caramel taste.
The confecioners style powdered xylitol can be substituted for regular powdered sugar if you cannot find powdered xylitol sweetener.
- Category: Dessert
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 155
- Sugar: 7
- Fat: 6
- Carbohydrates: 19
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 7