Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

If you’re a fan of moist and chewy chocolate cookies then these pumpkin chocolate chip bars are the fall dessert for you! They are super easy to make because you make them in a pan and you just add a little pumpkin flavor into a pretty typical chocolate cookie recipe.

Everyone in the world seems to go a little pumpkin crazy as Thanksgiving approaches. I guess we’re no different because we do end up baking with pumpkin a lot in the fall. Besides these pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars, some of our other pumpkin-inspired recipes include:

• pumpkin cheesecake
• pumpkin coffee cake
• pumpkin cupcakes with buttercream frosting
• pumpkin risotto

To name a few…the list keeps growing. 🙂

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were a natural fit since we were already such big fans of chocolate chip cookies. Greg grew up in a family where they made chocolate chip cookies during the holidays every year (not your traditional holiday cookie) and in my family, we always made them a fair amount with our own little twist — we made them in cookie bar form.

We are huge fans of cookie bars for a few reasons:

1. It’s less work! It takes less time and there’s less cleanup.
2. The chewy center is our favorite part of chocolate chip cookies. They come out so moist and chewy, it’s almost like a hybrid between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie.
3. They make for a great bake and take item since they are so easy and done in one pan.
4. Did I mention it’s less work? 🙂

Adding pumpkin flavor to chocolate chip cookies

We do this in 2 different ways:

1. We add pumpkin pie spice. It’s a great spice to have on hand for adding pumpkin flavor to your baking. We usually just buy it from the store, but you can make homemade pumpkin pie spice if you want to take on the extra work.
2. We also add in canned pumpkin puree. You could make pumpkin puree from scratch, but seeing as one of the reasons we love pumpkin chocolate chip bars is that they’re so easy, we tend to stick with canned puree. It works.

Aside from the pumpkin, it’s a pretty straightforward chocolate chip cookie recipe although we do use whole wheat flour.

The big difference comes at bake time. Since they are pumpkin chocolate chip bars, you just spread the  cookie batter evenly in a greased 13×9 inch glass baking pan. 30-40 minutes later it’s pan cookie heaven!

The toothpick doneness test

To check for doneness we use the toothpick test: You insert a toothpick and then pull it out. You want it to basically come out clean or with just a little bit on it. If it’s a gooey mess, give your pan cookies just a little bit more bake time and test again.

We hope you love these pumpkin chocolate chip bars as much as we do. Hopefully, they’ll help you help curb that pumpkin craving that seems to possess us all during fall season.

When I have a little more time and can plan ahead, buying the ingredients I need, I’d also love to try these pumpkin streusel bars or these pumpkin crumble bars. Or maybe both! 😉

Here’s the recipe: