Breakfast is a fickle time. Some people don’t have time or desire to throw anything together in the morning. Others love it, but sometimes it can get repetitive—a variation of eggs, toast, maybe some vegetables or ham for you meat eaters out there. Muffins are good sometimes but end up being filled with more sugar than dessert and lack actual nutrition. These bars take elements from all breakfast eaters’ habits and combine them: easy to make, grab-and-go, and healthy.

These were made gluten-free with coconut flour but you could easily make them with all-purpose flour as well. You can also get flexible with the toppings—I almost tripled how much crumble to put on top because I like a good crunch. I also added in a bunch of assorted nuts and seeds, and used sweetened coconut. Like I said, get creative and make your own. This is just a guideline. I adapted this recipe from PaleOMG.

The one major thing I would change is the amount of flour used in the batter. It ended up being really moist, which is fine if that’s your thing, but I wanted mine to be a little bit firmer. I ended up waiting for mine to cool, cutting them up into bars, then baking them on my cooling racks in the oven at 200 degrees F for about 20 extra minutes.

Ingredients

Makes 8 bars

For the crust:

• ⅓ cup pumpkin purée
• ⅓ cup real maple syrup (none of that Aunt Jemima stuff)
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• 1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (or ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves, ⅛ teaspoon powdered ginger)
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• Pinch of salt

For the blueberry layer:

• 2 cups of frozen blueberries work, thawed
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. coconut cream concentrate
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• Zest of ½ a lemon
• 2 tbsp. coconut flour

For the crumble:

• ½ cup mixed nuts, chopped (I used pecans and blanched almonds)
• 3 tbsp. sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• 2 tsp. pepitas, chopped
• ½ tsp. poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp. raw hulled hemp seeds
• 1 tbsp. honey
• Sprinkle of cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together pumpkin purée, maple syrup, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, powdered ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly pour the dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well.

Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish, then cut a piece of parchment paper down so it can fit into the baking dish, leaving two sides out of the baking dish. This way you can pick the bars out of the dish without breaking them apart.

Pour the batter into the lined baking sheet and spread out evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes until cooked completely through.

While the crust bakes, place a small saucepan over medium heat and add blueberries. Add honey, coconut cream concentrate, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix well. Once the blueberries begin to burst, remove from heat, pour out half the liquid, and add coconut flour. Mix until completely combined. Let sit for about 5 minutes to thicken up. When the crust is done cooking, pour the blueberry mixture on top.

In a bowl, add nuts and seeds, coconut, honey, cinnamon and salt and mix together and mix. Add clumps of the nuts to the top of the blueberry mixture. Place back in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan, then place on a cool rack to cool for 5 more minutes before cutting into 6-8 squares. Store in fridge for up to 5 days.