I highly recommend adding pumpkin and squash purée into baked recipes, especially this variation of a brownie recipe. It lends sweetness and moisture, and can be used to replace some or all of another ingredient.
This recipe is based on my popular recipe for blondies, found on my site and in one of my cookbooks. I reduced a bit of the almond butter and replaced it with pumpkin purée (actually roasted butternut squash purée). I kept the amount of sweetener the same because the added sweetness from the pumpkin is very subtle and I'm also increasing the volume of the batter so I want to insure that I have enough sweetness in every bite.
And, the results...amazing! I love this as much if not more than my blondies recipes. But I'll let you be the judge.
A note on spices: I keep this to just cinnamon, but feel free to add the full array of traditional pumpkin spices, including nutmeg, ginger, and cloves for a spicier pumpkin blondie. See the recipe notes for the amounts to add.
Pumpkin Blondies
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C, or gas mark 4).
- Line an 8 inch x 8 inch (20.32 cm x 20.32 cm) baking pan with parchment paper, or grease it generously.
- Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and mix until well blended.
- Scoop the batter into the baking pan, and spread it across the pan. It will even out when it bakes.
- Bake the pumpkin blondies for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool and slice. Store in the refrigerator for a few weeks.
jennifer wood says
I made this with cashew butter and date sugar. I added extra spice and the spices really stood out - a pumpkin spice cake! I usually use roasted almond butter which overwhelms the spices, but raw almond butter probably would be good too. With the drier date sugar it came out more cake than brownie. Its a great base recipe to play around with. We ate it with whole milk dripped scd yogurt and it was really good. Will be trying it with persimmon for persimmon spice cake for the holidays coming up, and playing with different frostings, Thanks Erica for another winner 🙂
Thanks, Jennifer! Ooh, I've been wanting to know if it works well with cashew butter. Yes, with less moisture in the batter (date or granulated sugar) it takes on more of a cake or cupcake consistency. The same will happen if you cut down some of the liquid sweetener.
Kristina Sarracco says
Would flax work well to replace eggs in this? Not being able to tolerate eggs has made baking a bit more difficult and creative.
Thanks for sharing, love this site. I’ve been coming back here for years.
Hi Kristina! I haven't tested it yet, but I definitely think flaxseed eggs will work here. Let me know if you test it and I'll do that same.
Sue K. says
Thank you for another simple and delicious recipe! Because my batter was runny due to runny almond butter and using maple syrup, I added 2 teaspoons of coconut flour. They baked up beautifully as 8 cupcakes.
Erica says
Great to hear! thanks for sharing what worked for you 🙂 I use maple syrup and it's never runny, fyi, so it will depend on your almond butter or other nut butter for sure. My almond butter is not runny and I use brands that don't add extra oil, so that might be the case with some runny batters. Cheers!
Karen says
You say to spread it across the pan. I measured exactly and it is very runny. Is there any ingredient, like coconut flour, that is missing?
Erica says
Yes, spread it across the pan, it will be slightly gooey, not runny. Hmmm, is your almond butter runny? Or is the pumpkin puree runny?
Jan says
What nut would be a good almond substitute since I'm allergic to them. Thanks
Erica says
Pumpkin seed butter, cashew butter, and peanut butter are good options. They will change the flavor a bit.