Make your pumpkin pie handheld and easy to share with these creamy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie Bars with a graham cracker crust.  Perfect for holiday parties and potlucks — and since they freeze well, you can even make them ahead of time! 

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Remember a few weeks ago, when I shared those pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars?  I mentioned how previous years’ attempts came out more like cake bars than cookie bars.

Well, somewhere along the way, I became so frustrated with the cookie bars that I veered into pie bar territory.  Except while baking the pie bars, I forgot to take the chocolate chips from the chocolate chip cookie bar attempts out.

And you know what? They were really, really good. So I decided to keep them in.

Non-traditional? Yes. Delicious? Also yes. 

Now really, this has me questioning why we don’t always put some sort of chocolate in our pumpkin pies.  After all, my nutella swirled pumpkin pie is amazing.  And these chocolate chip pumpkin pie bars are A++ too.

Silky smooth, creamy pumpkin filling with a graham cracker crust that you can eat with your hands. Plus, chocolate chips. Sounds like a winner in my book!

Pumpkin Pie Bars with Evaporated Milk

To keep these pumpkin pie bars extra creamy, we’re making them with evaporated milk.  

Why evaporated milk rather than regular milk? Or if we want an extra creamy texture, why not just use heavy cream?  

The answer to this, friends, can, as always, be found in my favorite subject… kitchen chemistry.

First up, let’s talk about evaporated milk and what exactly it is.

Kitchen Chemistry

Evaporated milk undergoes a vacuum process to remove approximately 60% of the water content.  This leaves behind a super-concentrated milk solution high in nutrients and flavor, which is extra creamy.  This solution is then heat sterilized to prevent spoilage, which caramelizes the milk sugars and gives the characteristics caramel-ish cooked taste.

Now, why would we want to use evaporated milk — with 60% of the water removed — versus just using some heavy cream to get the creamy consistency for our pumpkin pie bars? Because pumpkin is already 90% water!

And while yes, canned pumpkin has already been strained, the liquid content is still quite high, so the less water we can add to our pumpkin pie, the less time we have to cook it, and the better the final texture. 

Using evaporated milk maximizes flavor and texture while minimizing the amount of time necessary to cook off all that excess water.

Pumpkin pie bar perfection!

Easy Graham Cracker Crust

We’re making these chocolate chip pumpkin pie bars with a graham cracker crust.  If you’re a traditionalist, you can press in a normal pie crust (or a shortbread crust!) but graham cracker crusts are my favorite, and this is my food blog, so… ahem.

Also, the graham crackers and pumpkin pie spices go together really well, even though we usually don’t see them together, since pumpkin pies usually go in traditional pie crusts.  Again – why?  

More pumpkin pies with chocolate, and more pumpkin pies with graham cracker crusts.  It’s time to start a pumpkin pie revolution!

Making these pumpkin pie bars is really a snap.  The crust comes together in a food processor (or use a rolling pin to smash graham crackers by hand), mix in sugar and melted butter, and blind bake for 5 minutes.

Graham cracker crusts are pretty easy, but if you’d like to read up on all my tricks for the BEST graham cracker crust, check out this Perfect Graham Cracker Pie Crust post!

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Filling

The pumpkin pie filling can be whisked by hand in one bowl – so easy! Or if you used a food processor for the crust, wipe it out with a damp towel and use it to make the filling.

Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, some spices, and salt until well combined and no sugar lumps remain.  Then whisk in the pumpkin puree and the evaporated milk.  Finally, fold in miniature chocolate chips.

Bake until the filling is set and cool completely before serving.

I prefer to bake these pumpkin pie bars in a 9-inch square springform pan, which allows for easy removal of the sides.  This is one of my most used baking dishes and I highly recommend one for all bakers.

If you don’t have one, line a 9×9-inch baking dish with parchment paper, allowing the parchment to hang over the edge to use as handles to lift the pie bars out of the pan after cooling.

Serving Ideas for Pumpkin Pie Bars

I love these chocolate chip pumpkin pie bars because they’re perfect for all the upcoming holiday parties and events.  Halloween parties, Thanksgiving potlucks, winter holiday parties.  Unlike a pie, you can eat them with one hand, and they’re easy to stack on top of each other.

For easy transportation, keep the serving simple: decorate with a melted chocolate drizzle.

If you’re hosting a holiday party in your own home, serve them as I do in these photos: with a dollop of freshly whipped cream.

For a dinner party with utensils, I think they’d be amazing with a scoop of ice cream: vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, or pumpkin!

Pumpkin pie bars are delicious served either chilled or at room temperature.

Refrigerate or Freeze Leftovers

Once cooled to room temperature, chocolate chip pumpkin pie bars will keep best stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Want to make these pumpkin pie bars ahead of time?  Bake the bars, cool them to room temperature, and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.  Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. 

For transporting pumpkin pie bars, store them with a layer of wax paper or parchment paper in between vertical layers to prevent the bars from sticking to each other.

Tips and Tricks for the Best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie Bars

1. Use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin will be the only ingredient listed for pumpkin puree.
2. Make sure to use evaporated milk and not sweetened condensed milk. The cans look similar – evaporated milk has a thinner, pourable consistency.
3. Blind bake the crust.  This helps prevent the crust from getting too soggy – the pumpkin pie filling is very wet, so just the 5 extra minutes at high temperature will give the crust a head start to stay crispy.
4. For super smooth pumpkin pie bars, mix ingredients in a food processor.  This step is optional; you can use a whisk just fine.  But if you want the smoothest, pumpkin pie bars give everything a whirl in the food processor.
5. Take the temperature of your pumpkin pie bars to determine doneness.  Don’t mess around with a knife inserted one inch from the edge, or the amount of jiggle.  Just trust science: an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the pie should read 175 °F.  
6. Wait until the pumpkin pie bars are fully cooled before cutting.  For even neater slices, chill first and wipe the knife in between each slice (as pictured above, I cut mine at room temperature and without wiping the knife).

More Delicious Pumpkin Recipes:

• Salted Caramel Pumpkin Bread
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Babka
• Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
• Cream Cheese Swirl Pumpkin Bundt Cake
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
• Nutella Pumpkin Bread