Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies

I made these Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies for the first time this past weekend as the dessert for my Project Food Blog Dinner Party (<–have you voted yet?).

It is no secret that pumpkin and pecans are two of my favorite foods. If you take a look my recipes page, you’ll find that I love to combine these two ingredients…a lot.

• Pumpkin Pecan Butter
• Pumpkin Pecan Coconut Granola
• Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Pecan Pumpkin Butter Patties

Given the amount of requests I got for this recipe, I think it’s safe to say that many of y’all are big pumpkin + pecan fans too.

The original recipe called for fresh sweet potato puree. While I had canned sweet potato puree on hand, I opted for canned pumpkin instead. I also cut back on the sugar just a smidge and used pumpkin pie spice to go along with the pumpkin switcheroo.

I usually find that when I bake with pumpkin, I get a very moist end product. These blondies, however, were thick, dense and slightly cakey. Thus, you can wrap them up and eat them on the go without having to worry about smushing them.

I used a 9×5 loaf pan instead of an 8×8 square baking dish and believe it or not, I baked these in the toaster oven! I found that I had to lower the temperature by about 20-30 degrees and decrease the cooking time by 2-3 minutes as a result.

These are incredibly scrumptious on their own but next time, I think I’m going to serve them with a side of butter pecan and/or pumpkin ice cream. Perhaps for Thanksgiving dessert?

Or…tonight .

Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies

Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375*F. In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients (pumpkin, oil, sugar, brown sugar, almond milk, vanilla) and stir well. Sift in dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, spices) and stir to combine. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in chopped pecans and chocolate chips (optional). Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and even out the top with a spatula. Bake for 25-28 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool before slicing.

Tagged as: Blondies, Pecans, Pumpkin