Spiced pumpkin granola bars

I was planning to make my usual granola bars but was determined to use up the leftover pumpkin purée from the Spiced pumpkin cheesecake I made yesterday as well as a bunch of walnuts my aunt donated to me… So a new recipe was born, fairly accidentally, and it’s so gorgeous, I just had to share it! These are much chewier than my other recipe which is very much of the crunchy variety. But I’m in love with pumpkins for the moment so I can’t get enough of these recipes!

Ingredients

200g Gluten-free oats

70g walnuts

75g rice syrup (or other liquid sweetener, such as maple syrup or honey)

55g lactose-free or vegan butter

50g xylitol or other sugar

100g pumpkin purée (for the recipe, see Spiced pumpkin cheesecake)

50g dark cooking chocolate

1 tsp gingerbread spices/speculaaskruiden

Pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C and roast the oats and chopped nuts on a baking sheet for 10 mins or until slightly brown.

In the meantime, put the rice syrup, butter, and xylitol in a pot on a medium heat until dissolved. Add the pumpkin purée and mix until well combined.

Add salt and spices to the oats and nuts, and add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Mix until wel combined.

Put in a lined roasting tin and press down well until you get a shape you’re happy with to cut pieces from when it’s solid.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie or in bursts in the microwave (I don’t normally do the latter but was in a hurry this time and it worked very well).

Drizzle the chocolate over the granola mix and put the roasting tin into the freezer for 2 hours. Take out of the freezer and cut into rectangular chunks or the shapes you desire.

These can be stored in the fridge for 5 days or you can keep them in the freezer and defrost as required.