Today I have a recipe that I’m pretty pumped to share with all of you. It’s a combination of a few recipes and any similarities to other recipes are coincidence as I promise I whipped it up on my own. After reading about Chocolate Covered Katie’s usage of chickpeas in baked goods, I was determined to create a winning recipe using the nutrient dense beans.
One serving of this dessert has just 100 calories, 1 g of fiber and 3 g of protein!
There are many variations which I’ll list below the recipe but let me preface the recipe by saying if you bring this to a Thanksgiving dinner, your guests will have NO IDEA you used chickpeas instead of flour. Also, I had most of the ingredients on hand. The only purchases I needed to make for this recipe were the garbanzo beans, graham cracker, chocolate chips and canned pumpkin.
Sarah Fit Pumpkin Pie Bars
- Makes: 16 bars
- Total Time: Prep 15-minutes, Cooking 35-minutes
Ingredients:
Filling:
- 1 cup Garbanzo Beans aka Chickpeas
- 3/4 cup of Pumpkin Puree
- 1/2 cup of Almond Milk, Unsweetened Vanilla (or milk of choice)
- 1 heaping tbsp Peanut Butter
- 1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder optional
- 1/2 cup of packed Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg White (or flaxseed egg)
- 1 tsp of Pumpkin Pie spice (may substitute with cinnamon)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Topping:
- 1 Egg White
- 2 wedges The Laughing Cow Light Swiss
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Chocolate Chips
Bottom:
- Graham Crackers (enough sheets to cover bottom of pan)
Directions:
Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 baking dish with enough graham crackers to cover the bottom. It’s OK if the crackers overlap or if there are spaces. You can also use a ready-made pie crust if you prefer, or create your own graham cracker bottom by crushing up 4 sheets of graham crackers and adding 1 tbsp of melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes before adding additional ingredients. I wanted a simple recipe so I just used the graham crackers as sheets.
Next, combine in a food processor all filling ingredients. Blend until it is a smooth like consistency that is uniform throughout. If you are using a mini processor. You may need to do this in batches. Note: The garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) will need some liquid to blend well. Pour on top of graham crackers.
Combine topping ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and blend well until it is a smooth like consistency. Drizzle on top for a marble appearance. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake for 30-40 minutes depending on size of baking dish and oven. The larger the dish the less time it will take to cook since the wet layers are not as thick. Let cool for 10-15 minute before serving. Cut into bars or serving like pumpkin pie if you used a graham cracker pie crust.
These tasted best after they sat for a few hours and cooled down to room temperature.
The cheesecake topping and chocolate chips are optional as they are not used in a traditional pumpkin pie recipe but gave the bars a sweet surprise since there is not too much sugar used in this recipe. It also added color and made it more appealing.
You may omit the graham cracker bottom all together if you wish. Just remember to spray the bottom of the pan. You can also add more or omit completely the protein powder. I wanted to add some nutritional value to the dessert but it’s not entirely necessary. Nutrition information will change depending on how you make this recipe but here are mine below. If you make this recipe, take a picture and upload it to my Facebook fan page! Don’t forget your pre-Thanksgiving exercise this week so you can have seconds 🙂
This recipe can also easily be made gluten-free by omitting the crust, and vegan by omitting the cheesecake topping.
Nutrition for one serving: 105 calories, 2 g fat, 23 g Carbs, 1.2 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g Protein, 16.9 g Sugar (many is naturally occurring).
Yum, these look delicious. I will have to try these for sure. I have used chick peas in recipes in the past, so sneaky….no one could even tell they were in there. Love that. Thanks for the recipe!
I happen to have all of the ingredients on hand! Ironically I need an egg yolk for another dish i am making for my family so I can make these at the same time make good use of the egg white instead of discarding it 🙂 I’ll definitely upload a picture!
Yay! Looking forward to seeing how pretty it comes out 🙂
Looks delicious and very nutritious! I followed the recipe exactly but after 30 minutes, its still very wet. I’m wondering if anyone else had this problem. Its been 45 minutes now and still baking in the oven… any modifications to the recipe would be greatly appreciated!
did you use baking soda or baking powder? Also, what kind of baking dish did you use?
9x13 glass dish like yours. And I used baking powder. I’m wondering if its because I blended the ingredients in a blender rather than using a food processor? In the end, I had to throw it out but it looks so good that I’ll have to try again using a food processor next time! I love your low cal recipes!
I actually have a similar question…I don’t have a food processor, so I was wondering if using a blender will make a difference. But now that I read Jenny’s experience, I’m hesitant to use the blender…any suggestions Sarah for folks who don’t own a food processor??? I might have to hold off on making this dessert for Thanksgiving and buy a food processor on Black Friday!
I made it before Sarah modified the recipe and mine didn’t rise much and was wet as well…still delicious though! I’ve been having it for breakfast. I’m sure the baking soda and extra baking powder will help 🙂
You can’t go wrong with extra chocolate! They look great.
Yum! Those bars look so good! I love how they’re only 100 calories! 🙂
I made them yesterday and they are very good. Next time, I’ll probably use a smaller pan than 9x13 though because I think mine were a little thinner than they should have been. Now, I just have to figure out how to not eat it all in a couple of days.
Hey Sarah, I was reading about a diet called 80 10 10, have u heard of it? what are your thoughs?
Thanks
I have not heard of it to be honest!
I made these reducing pumpkin & milk, increased protein powder & added some oat bran…sooo delicous!
Hi, Sarah!
I made your recipe today, with a few modifications and entered it on Daily Burn. It is delicious!!! Lo and behold, the final calculations were 112 calories/serving (15 fat cal). It would be even less calories if I had paid attention to the fact that the splenda brown sugar blend is only to be used at a half quantity of regular brown sugar would be. I guess it didn’t have to be so sweet, but I have a sweet tooth (that’s why I look for recipes like this one) so I loved it. My servings are bigger than yours, since I doubled the recipe and only cut it in 20 bars.
My changes: doubled the recipe; switched brown sugar to splenda brown sugar blend; changed peanut butter for biscoff spread (my son is allergic to peanuts so I don’t even have it at home); used plain soy milk with vanilla extract instead of vanilla flavor.
I used a cake pan, baked for about 42 minutes, and the thickness and consistency are perfect!! They cut and serve just like real pumpkin pie. Thank you for this delicious dessert recipe!
I’d be happy to send you pictures, if you want. However, it is searchable in Dailyburn.
Sorry, I had forgotten to add the graham crackers to the recipe. Final calories: 131/bar.
Hi Sarah! I’m totally loving these recipes and exercises . I was wondering if there was a substitute you can recommend for the Vanilla Protein Powder in this recipe (instead of just omitting it)? I have ground Flax so will that work or will it give a funky texture? thanks 🙂
You can probably just omit it. The flax would work, or add the equivalent in another flour like gluten free or whole wheat.
Yes， I had a try before，it really works and it’s very very very delicious. Thank you for sharing:)
http://www.ccchinachic.com/
Hi Sarah
just wanted to let you know, I love your recipe for Low Sugar Protein Bars & use them alot but thought I’d try a Quest Bar for ease etc. I monitor my blood sugar constantly as Type 1 diabetic and have found after 3 attempts that the Quest bar raises BS rapidly and is not in line with their nutritional values. I deduct 1/2 the fiber from total carbs to estimate insulin but doing that didn’t work, neither did NOT deducting fibre. So I am giving up on them because they are either misrepresenting their values or have hidden sweeteners/way less fibre than their say. Thanks! anthea
Interesting and rapid response from Quest:
Apr 07 11:28 am (PDT):
Hi Anthea,
Thanks so much for taking the time to write us.
We receive lots of feedback from customers all over the world and it’s become very clear that blood sugar readings are a very independent thing.
The vast majority of people who track their blood sugar report very low readings but there are some people who do report spikes.
There are probably several reasons for this. Some people seem to get spikes from ingesting whey protein, others from the plant fiber we use and some people simply from any sweet taste, even when no calories are present (the cephalic insulin response).
We’ve also had people report that nut butters spike their readings as well.
Some people even report spikes from fish and other protein sources. The only thing that seems to ensure lower blood sugar readings is when the meal contains a lot of fat.
Quest bars are relatively low calorie and very high in protein (42-50% protein depending upon flavor). We don’t want to add more fat simply to blunt responses in the people that seem to show higher readings as maintaining good calorie control and macronutrient ratios are much more important in our opinion.
We’re certain that neither the erythritol nor the stevia is “contaminated” as we have them tested regularly and only deal with very reputable companies. Additionally, some people report blood sugar spikes even when they are eating bars that don’t contain either of those two ingredients.
In a nutshell, it seems that there is not one blanket cause nor answer to people’s highly individual readings.
We are interested in measuring insulin and glucagon themselves as it would provide much more information than blood sugar readings which are really indirect indications.
There are not hidden sugars on our bars. The sugar contents in our bars are from nuts and dried fruits.
All the best,
Belle
Team Quest
Quest Nutrition
This is exactly what I was looking for -- a combination of chocolatecoveredkatie and pumpkin! Thanks for putting it together 🙂
Blogs like yours should give warnings about printing recipes. The print button appears right below the recipe but when I click print the entire page prints out, all pictures, and ALL COMMENTS. Quite annoying and what a waste of paper and ink. This little recipe printed out a full fifteen or so pages. WARN your readers, please. Cutting and pasting is a far better option and I wish you didn’t have a print option at all.
Thanks for the feedback. I had no idea!