These pumpkin chocolate chip blondies are thick moist, and fudgy. These rich bars are full that warm spiced pumpkin flavor and studded with chocolate chips. And best of all, they only need one bowl and are ready in just 35 minutes.
Why this Recipe Works
These pumpkin blondies are the perfect balance between cakey and fudgy, but are fudgy enough that I feel they qualify as a blondie. They’re not your traditional pumpkin chocolate chip bar, which typically weigh heavily to the cakey side.
These are the perfect fall dessert and are easier to make than the typical pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe (no scooping!). And with all super basic ingredients, there’s a good chance you’ve already got everything in your pantry (no grocery store run, another win!).
Ingredient Notes
- Pumpkin and Pumpkin Pie Spice. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice give this recipe it’s signature pumpkin flavor. The spice adds warmth really makes that pumpkin flavor pop. See the Expert Tips section on how to make your own pumpkin pie spice at home.
- Chocolate Chips. I prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips personally because I love how the slight bitterness of the chocolate cuts through the super sweet pumpkin flavor. But feel free to experiment and try out some other mix-ins!
- Butter. Butter not only adds amazing flavor to these pumpkin chocolate chip blondies but the high ratio of fat to flour helps gives these blondies their signature fudgy flavor.
- Brown Sugar. I like to use a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar because the molasses in the brown sugar compliments the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice so well and adds some moisture to these bars.
How to Make this Recipe
- Start by creaming together your softened butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg, pumpkin puree, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking powder. Beat together smooth.
- Fold in your flour and chocolate chips until smooth.
- Grease your 9x13 inch pan and spread your batter evenly across the pan. Bake for 30-35. Cool completely before cutting into and eating for the fudgiest consistency.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
Blondies are a version of a brownie, but the chocolate or cocoa in the recipe is replaced with vanilla and brown sugar. So in this pumpkin chocolate chip blondie recipe, we’ve taken it one step further by incorporating pumpkin into it.
If your blondies come out too cakey there’s a good chance you did one of two things, you overbaked them or added too much flour.
When you’re baking these blondies, remember to start with less time. You can bake them for longer, but you can’t un-bake them. To check for doneness you can stick toothpick in the center, you should have some moist crumbs stuck to it. If there are no moist crumbs, you may have overbaked it.
It’s really easy to accidentally add too much flour. When adding flour to this recipe, the most accurate way to measure flour is weigh it. Two cups of flour weighs 260 grams. If you don’t have a food scale spoon and level your flour, see our guide on how to measure flour correctly.
Yes, you can absolutely halve this recipe. For the egg, instead of trying to add half an egg, just add the yolk. Bake half this recipe in a greased 8x8 pan. For the time, you may have to play it by ear to see when it’s done. Start with 15 minutes and check it, add time as needed.
You can use add all sorts of things to this batter instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips. These pumpkin blondies would be great with white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, maybe some caramel bits or even chopped pecans! If you try another variation let us know what your tried and how it turned out!
Expert Tips
- How to make homemade pumpkin pie spice. Making your own pumpkin pie spice is so easy! Here’s how you make 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, which is how much you need for this recipe! Feel free to quadruple this recipe to have a little stock of it ready to go for the fall season.
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- optional : add a pinch of cardamom
- Don’t overbake these pumpkin blondies It’s easy to overbake these without realizing it, which will ruin the moist and fudgy texture of these bars. If you stick a toothpick in them at the end to test for doneness, you should expect to see some moist crumbs stuck to it. If it comes out clean, there is a good chance it has been overbaked.
- Line your pan. For easy removal of your pumpkin chocolate chip bars line your pan with foil or parchment paper and then grease it. This way when your bars are cool you can lift the entire thing straight out of the pan .
- Getting Clean Cuts. Getting clean cut bars with fudgy recipes can be tricky. 1) Make sure your bars are completely cool before cutting, warm blondies tend to be more crumbly. 2) Clean off your knife between each slice. If you’ve got any crumbs or chocolate on your knife, make sure you clean it or more crumbs and chocolate will stick and your cuts will not be neat.
How to Store and Freeze this Recipe
These bars are best eaten within the first 2-3 days of being made, keep them covered in plastic wrap or foil so they don’t dry out. I actually think they are best the day after I make them.
To freeze these blondies, make sure they are completely cool first. I like to wrap each bar individually in plastic wrap for a quick thaw and an easy treat whenever I have a craving!
You can also just place them in a large Tupperware together, just place parchment paper or plastic wrap between them if you plan on stacking these bars, otherwise they’ll stick together.
Try out these other fun fall desserts!
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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups flour measured correctly
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together softened butter and both sugars for 1 minute until light and fluffy.
- Add in the egg, pumpkin puree, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking powder and beat together until smooth and thoroughly mixed.
- Add in your flour and stir it in until just barely combined. Stir in chocolate chips until evenly dispersed. I like to reserve a small handful of chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the batter just to make them look prettier.
- Grease a 9x13 pan and pour batter into pan.Using your spatula spread batter evenly across pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. I like to bake mine on the lower end of that time frame for a bit of a fudgier consistency. Don’t overbake them or they’ll be dry and crumbly.
Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- optional : add a pinch of cardamom
Melly
Quick and delicious! My family devoured them!
Rachel
Made these tonight for dessert, since it was finally feeling like fall. They turned out perfectly "fudgy" and delicious after 35 minutes of baking. We even splurged and used ghiradelli chocolate chips in them instead of store brand; so worth it! Also, so easy and fool proof to make these instead of scooping dough out for cookies. Pulled them out of the pan with the parchment paper, cut them up and very quickly gobbled them up. Thanks for the recipe!