I'm happy to present this best Pumpkin Bars Recipe with dates, nuts, and lemon glaze. These chewy bites are complimented with a little lemon flavor and a lot of pumpkin spice. So good!

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How do you make pumpkin bars?

Well, it's easy! But I did have some help.

While digging into one of those old cookbooks at my Momma's - again. I found a recipe for Yummy Persimmon Bars. You may not know that persimmon recipes are hard to come by, so this recipe piqued my interest.

What's a persimmon?

Well, it's a fruit that resembles a tomato. It comes from a tree that grows easily in the mild climate, like in south Louisiana. I have a vivid childhood memory of biting into a persimmon before it was fully ripened. I ended up with puckered lips before getting the correct instructions on how and when to eat them: don't eat them before they become soft, and don't eat the skin!

Persimmons in a bowl with a cut one on the side and a bow of peeled ones.

After getting past the skin, the flesh is the pleasant part. A spoon removes the pulp easily, leaving the skin behind. Here's a link for more information about persimmon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon.

Since you may not have this fruit in your area, I tried the recipe with pumpkin instead, and I'm glad I did.

A glass bowl besides cut and whole lemons with a bowl of dates sitting on a blue and white dishtowel.

More Tasty Ingredients In Pumpkin Bars Recipe

Because dates are so popular, I've swapped the raisins with them in the original persimmon bar recipe. The dates benefit the bars with their natural sweetness helping to reduce the amount of white sugar in them, and their fiber gives good texture.

To accentuate the pumpkin, I find lemon juice always gives it a bright lift of taste. So I added some fresh juice to the bars and the glaze. It brings a delightful citrus-sweet surprise!

If you're not a fan of lemon, you can substitute the juice with milk. This makes a tasty glaze, also.

A lemon glaze being drizzled onto a pan of pumpkin bars.

This is the perfect treat with spices of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, and with its healthful benefits, especially during the pumpkin-eating season.

You'll find these bars are delicious without the glaze, so make them any way you like.

More Louisiana Woman Recipes!

If you are blessed to live in a place with access to persimmons, use the persimmon pulp instead of pumpkin in this Pumpkin Bars Recipe, and let me know how they turn out. Thanks, and happy baking!

Recipe