Pumpkin Spice Protein Bars

Pumpkin spice season continues! These tasty and versatile bars make for a great breakfast, coffee-break snack, or dessert, all while helping you meet your protein requirements. Enjoy!
Yield: 9 servings of 1 bar each, totaling 9 bars
Macros (per serving): 210 calories | 11g protein | 15g fat | 3.5g net carbs
Prep: 25 minutes | Cool: 3 to 4 hours
Equipment Required: 7-inch (18cm) square cake pan or 9x5-inch (23x13cm) loaf pan
Storage: refrigerated for up to 5 days. Can also be frozen.
Ingredients:
  • ​½ of a 13.5-ounce (400g) can (i.e. 200g) full-fat coconut milk
  • ½ of a 15-ounce (425g) can (i.e. 213g) unsweetened pumpkin purée
  • ¼ cup (60ml) water
  • 1 tablespoon (9g) agar agar powder
  • 1¼ teaspoons pumpkin spice ✎
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (128g) unsweetened sunflower seed butter or nut/seed butter of choice ✎
  • 2 tablespoons (25g) granulated allulose or granulated keto-friendly sweetener of choice
  • 1 teaspoon sugar-free vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup (84g) vegan vanilla-flavored protein powder ✎
  • ⅓ cup (33g) walnuts, chopped ✎
Directions:
  1. ​In a small saucepan, whisk together the coconut milk, pumpkin purée, water, agar agar powder, pumpkin spice, and salt. Bring to a bubbling state on medium heat. The mixture is quite thick so will not really "boil." Cover with a well-fitted lid, reduce heat to low, and cook for 5 minutes. . Whisk occasionally.
  2. Meanwhile, put the sunflower seed butter in a medium-sized mixing bowl, and the allulose or preferred sweetener and vanilla extract in a small heat-safe bowl of choice.
  3. Chop the walnuts. Set a small portion aside for topping if desired.
  4. Line a 7-inch (18cm) square cake pan or 9x5-inch (23x13cm) loaf pan with parchment. Allow the parchment to hang over at least 2 sides of the pan for easy removal of the bars. I also prefer to use a loose-bottomed pan.
  5. Once ready, add roughly ½ cup (120g) of the pumpkin mixture to the allulose bowl and combine with a small whisk or fork ​✎. Add the remaining pumpkin mixture to the sunflower seed butter bowl and whisk until fullly combined.
  6. Add the protein powder and walnuts to the pumpkin-sunflower seed butter mixture and combine thoroughly to form a smooth dough without any dry patches. I use a medium-sized silicone spatula for this.
  7. Transfer the dough to your lined pan and spread/press it into an even layer. I use the spatula and/or my hands for this.
  8. Cover the top of your bars with the allulose-pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle with the walnuts if you set some aside.
  9. Transfer the bars to the fridge to cool and set for 3 to 4 hours.
  10. Cut into 9 bars and enjoy chilled or at room temperature.
✎ Notes:
  • Pumpkin spice is a common spice blend in North America. If you happen to have my first book, you can find a recipe on page 78. If not, there are plenty of recipes available online.
  • Sunflower seed butter, or Sunbutter specifically, is particularly low in carbs and high in protein. Structually, another nut/seed butter should work, but the macros will likley be quite a bit different.
  • The bars are sweetened by the protein powder. If you don't find your protein powder to be very sweet, you may wish to add some additional sweetener. Feel free to use another flavor of protein powder that matches with pumpkin spice, like cinnamon roll. Note that protein powders with a bold flavor may mask the pumpkin spice flavor.
  • Feel free to replace the walnuts with an equal weight of almonds, hazelnuts, or sunflower seeds. This will not change the macros significantly.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the coconut milk (Aroy-D), agar agar powder (Now Foods), sunflower seed butter (Sunbutter), allulose (Health Garden), and protein powder (Vega Sport Vanilla).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.