Pumpkin Granola Bars

These soft and chewy pumpkin granola bars are packed with gooey chocolate, crunchy pepitas, and sweet dried cranberries. A filling grab-and-go breakfast or snack!

Meet the fall breakfast I literally cannot stop eating. It’s also doubling duty as my go-to fall snack so suffice to say, things are going pretty well around here.

Not only are these granola bars packed with that magical orange stuff we go crazy for this time of year but I also went way overboard and jammed ’em full of ALL the add-ins including pepitas for some crunch, dried cranberries for a little chew, and chocolate for obvious reasons.

They’re kinda like trail mix meets granola bar and y’all, everyone needs this in their life.

The best part? A pan of these granola bars literally could not be easier to whip up! I’m talking 10 minute prep time, 20-25 minutes in the oven and you’ll be in granola bar business.

An excellent business to be in, trust me.

These Granola Bars feature…

• A soft and chewy texture
• Lots of pumpkin spice flavor
• Melted chocolate, pepitas, and dried cranberries
• Mixes up in one bowl with only a handful of ingredients

Making the Granola Bars

(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)

Ingredients You Will Need

• Pumpkin puree
• Honey
• Egg
• Coconut oil
• Vanilla extract
• Oats
• Flaxseeds
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Salt
• Pepitas
• Dried cranberries
• Semisweet chocolate chips

Choosing Your Oats

These bars work best with quick-cooking oats as the fine texture eliminates the need for flour and produces a soft and chewy bar texture.

If you don’t have quick-cooking oats on hand, you can easily make them yourself. Pulse old-fashioned oats in a food processor several times until oats are partially-chopped.

Tips for Perfect Granola Bars

1. Use pumpkin puree – make sure you use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling.
2. Bake bars in a 9-inch square baking dish – I found that this size yields the perfect thickness for the bars.
3. Use parchment paper in pan – this will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan for cutting.
4. Bake bars until a light golden brown – the bars are done when the edges are a light golden brown.
5. Cool bars completely before cutting – make sure you wait for the bars to cool otherwise they will crumble apart during cutting.

Recipe Variations

Try these ideas for a different twist on these bars.

• Use white chocolate – swap out the semisweet for white chocolate chips.
• Swap in a nut – replace the pepitas with chopped pecans, almonds, or walnuts.
• Top bars with a glaze – drizzle cooled bars with a powdered sugar glaze or caramel sauce.

Storing and Freezing Bars

These bars store well in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.

To freeze bars, allow to cool completely, store bars in a freezer-safe container, and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw bars at room temperature and enjoy within 4 days.

These granola bars scream fall in every soft and chewy bite! They’re so loaded with texture from all the add-ins with the perfect level of pumpkin spice to give them that fall feel.

If you’re not eating these for breakfast and literally every snack in between you’re probably doing it wrong.

Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on with #wholeandheavenlyoven.

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This post was updated with new recipe adjustments and photos on 10/1/25.