These delicious pumpkin bars are perfect for fall, or really any time of the year. The fluffy cream cheese frosting is the perfect compliment to the moist pumpkin bars.
I’ve made these several times in the past month, and have gotten rave reviews and recipe requests everywhere I’ve taken them!

Guest post from Brigette Shevy
You’ll Love This Recipe for Pumpkin Bars
For as long as I can remember, this church cookbook recipe has been a family favorite all year long, but especially during the fall months.
In fact, we like them so much that these delicately flavored sweet-but-not-too-rich bars have been a welcome addition to our Thanksgiving (and Christmas) dessert table on many occasions.
Since these pumpkin bars are easy to throw together and the recipe makes a huge pan, they are perfect for serving to company or bringing to a party.
And… they freeze well too!

Pumpkin Bar Recipe Ingredients
For the Bars:
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups pumpkin (15-ounce can)
- 1 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I use ½ teaspoon each ginger and cloves and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg instead)
- 1 cup chopped nuts, optional (we never use)
For the Frosting:
- 4 Tablespoons softened butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon or less milk, if needed

How To Make Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 11″ x 16″ jellyroll pan and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs pumpkin, oil, and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended.

4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well.
5. Stir in nuts (optional).
6. Pour into greased pan and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until done.

7. While the batter bakes, mix all frosting ingredients together (adding more or less milk to achieve desired consistency) and set aside.
8. Once the bars are fully cooled, spread frosting overtop.


9. Refrigerate after 2 hours or freeze for later.

Storing this Recipe for Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Here are a few tips for storing your pumpkin bars (if you somehow end up with leftovers!)
Do pumpkin bars have to be refrigerated?
Since the frosting is made with cream cheese, it’s best to refrigerate pumpkin bars after 2 hours. Many people prefer the taste of cold cream cheese frosting as well.
Refrigeration can dry out baked goods, so if you plan to store your bars for more than a few days, they will taste fresher if you freeze them instead.
Can you freeze pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting?
Yes, they freeze beautifully and thaw extremely quickly.
Simply pop the whole pan in the freezer (covered with aluminum foil and/or plastic wrap) and they should be good for a couple of months. And yes, you can freeze the bars already frosted!
You can also freeze individual bars (with frosting) in small containers for a portion-perfect dessert.
When you’re ready to serve the bars, simply remove them from the freezer a couple of hours in advance. It should be incredibly moist, but not soggy (I’ve had excellent results after freezing this recipe).


Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe FAQ
Well, if you can keep people away from eating them long enough, they should easily last for a week or more in the fridge.
That said, they should still taste fresh after a couple of months in the freezer — so you really could make these well in advance!
No, you should refrigerate the frosted bars after 2-3 hours as cream cheese is a dairy product that could spoil.
One benefit of using cream cheese frosting (besides the delicious taste) is that it freezes quite well.


Pumpkin Bar Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Bars:
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 15 oz. pumpkin puree
- 1 cup oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
For the Frosting:
- 4 Tbsp softened butter
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tabs milk (or as needed)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease an 11″ x 16″ jellyroll pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs pumpkin, oil, and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended.
- Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well.
- Stir in nuts (optional).
- Pour into greased pan and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until done.
- While the batter bakes, mix all frosting ingredients together (adding more or less milk to achieve desired consistency) and set aside.
- Once the bars are fully cooled, spread frosting overtop.
- Regrigerate after 2 hours or freeze for later.
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Brigette is a full-time wife and mother who is blessed with three amazing bundles of energy (ages 6, 4, and 2). She enjoys music, experimenting in the kitchen, homeschooling her children, finding great deals, long-distance running, and anything chocolate.

Reader Interactions
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Best recipe ever! Everyone just loves it. I have making one every other week until Thanksgiving I told them.
Yay!! I’m SO glad it was a hit! I love this recipe too! -Olivia, MSM Team
Sounds good! I’ll make these soon but with fresh pumpkin pulp from homegrown pumpkins to save some more pennies. :))
I’ll try and remember to update on how it went, forgive me if I forget though.
Bit early, but happy holidays.
Jean-Pierre
Holland
I’ve made this before with this recipe and it is delicious. Wish the ads wouldn’t split up the ingredients though cause this time didn’t catch the 1st ingredient-sugar that was split from the rest of the list so I messed up this batch. 🤦♀️
My jelly roll pan is 17×11 so they will be a thinner version? Will they be just as good?
Is it pumpkin pie filling or is it just pumpkin puree?? Thanks!
Plain pumpkin puree. I’ve made it with canned or homemade, and both work!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I love pumpkin and would love to try something ese to keep in freezer.
Did you freeze these in the jelly roll pan or did you cut them and put them into a storage container?
Wondering if you have ever used zucchini in place of pumpkin in this recipe? Does it also freeze well?
This looks delicious. I hope to try this one soon!
Since I don’t have a jelly roll pan, can I just use a 9 x 13 instead?
They will end up significantly thicker – definitely like cake (and the frosting will be thicker as well). You’d probably have to cook them longer too. The flavor would still be the same. 🙂 It might work to do a 9×13 plus a smaller pan (loaf size or 8×8?). Sorry I can’t be of more help here!
For anyone who needs to eat gluten free – I make this same recipe and substitute a gluten free flour mix for the flour and add 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. They are really good. I serve them to people who don’t have to eat gluten free all the time and they never know the difference and ask for more!
Oooh! Good to know. Thanks!
Looks Delicious!
Has anyone tried this without the eggs? Suggestions for all natural substitutes? We don’t use the egg replacers. Egg allergic children over here!
I haven’t – sorry! I do know that I was baking muffins the other day and realized I didn’t have eggs, and ended up using applesauce instead – and they turned out great! That might work in this recipe.
Do you cut them into bars and then freeze some of them on something else (another pan)?
I’ve done it like that and it works great. I’ve also frozen the entire jelly pan (sealed well), and taken it out, cut a few bars off, wrapped it and stuck the pan back in, etc. Even when frozen “solid,” it’s not hard to cut at all.
Do these turn out cake like? If so, does anyone have a chewy pumpkin bar recipe too? I want to make both!! I’ve been craving pumpkin!! 🙂
These are not chewy. They are thinner than cake, but still like a light, moist cake. However – most people, even the ones who aren’t cake fans like myself, really like this recipe.
Bridgette is right, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like these pumpkin bars even if they don’t like cake.
I make basically the same pumpkin bar recipe (just with a little less sugar) and love it, but if I want something chewier/denser with pumpkin flavor I make pumpkin scones. They are really great too.
http://www.thedoityourselfmom.com/2011/11/diy-pumpkin-scones.html
Oh my….two cups of sugar, four eggs, and a cup of oil. No wonder they’re tasty!
Feel free to reduce the sugar and sub in applesauce for part of the oil – I’m sure they would still taste amazing! But yeah, definitely a holiday or company kind of recipe. 🙂
I love this pumpkin bar recipe, but I always make it with less sugar and often make it with half milk/half oil, and it still always turn out great.
And this recipe DOES make a huge pan – so if you divide the amount of sugar/oil by the amount of servings, it doesn’t sound nearly so bad. 😉
I hate to sound ignorant, but is a jelly roll pan a rimmed baking sheet?
This should answer your question:
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-jelly-roll-pan.htm
I made your recipe for brownies last night (made them black bottom brownies and added my own cheesecake topping). They were the best brownies I have ever made! Thank you! Will be trying these bars this weekend!
Oh yum! Cheesecake topping sounds fabulous!!
MMMM Brigette!!! Another delicious recipe. I think I will make these for our Thanksgiving potluck at church. Thank you!!
This is a GREAT potluck recipe!
Do you store the bars in the refrigerator given the cream cheese frosting? I’m thinking about trying this for the church bake sale this weekend, but I’m concerned about the frosting because they won’t be refrigerated.
I don’t know how long your bake sale is, but I personally have never left them out for more than a few hours unrefrigerated. There have been times when I was taking them somewhere and knew they were going to be sitting for an hour or two before people ate them – and I cut them up, put them on a platter, sealed it well and stuck it in the freezer. I transported them frozen, but since they thaw quickly, they were perfect when it was time to eat. Figured this bought me some extra time out of the fridge. 🙂 I did just google this, and found all sorts of answers (from “no more than 2 hours” to “days – the powdered sugar will prevent any bacteria from developing.”) 🙂
The cream cheese is the key to the answer. Since it’s a dairy product that should be fridged, the Official Answer is two hours. FYI, the Official Answer has changed over time: when I attended cooking school it was four hours.
Let me also point out that the Official Answer is to prevent illness in everyone, including the very young, the very old, and the severely immunocompromised. The overwhelming majority of persons would be fine if the frosted bars were left out longer.
One thing you could do is frost in stages. Say, frost half for the first part of the sale, with the rest of the frosting cooled (fridge, cooler, etc.), When the first half is almost gone, frost the rest and put that out.
And gotta say – what the heck!!! re “the powdered sugar will prevent any bacteria from developing.” That is the biggest load of baseless nonsense I have seen in a long time. One, sugar does not prevent bacteria from developing and two, bacteria isn’t the only concern.
I made pumpkin bars this morning and my recipe is pretty much the same one! Only mine calls for chocolate chips. We love this recipe and I’m sure it would be just as delicious without the chocolate chips too, but we love the chocolate in it!
Love this recipe! I think the recipe on the bottom of the page was missing the sugar? I had to compare it to a different recipe to make sure.
Okay, I don’t freeze food much. Freeze with icing or before icing the pumpkin bars and make the icing fresh?
I always ice the bars and then freeze. The icing tastes just as fresh as the bars themselves after being frozen.
Exactly what Char said. 🙂