Skinny Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars {GF}

By Taylor KiserSep 30, 2015

These pumpkin cheesecake bars are gluten free and so creamy, that you’d never know they’re secretly healthy, naturally sweetened and only 150 calories!

Spicy-sweet creamy goodness. I can almost taste the cinnamon and ginger still LINGERING on the tip of my tongue as I write this.

Which could be because I might have just snuck a bite of the leftover cheesecake bars that I promised the Hubs he could bring to his co-workers, because I have issues with sharing.

You know, just hypothetically speaking.

BUT. Cheesecake. It’s my favorite food. Like, ever. And if you’re sitting there questioning my definition of “food” because you think cheesecake should really be called a “dessert” and left to only a few occasions out of the year, well, TUFF. I like it. I eat it. Sometimes even in the form of an oatmeal recipe with blueberry cheesecake swirl OR strawberry cheesecake overnight oats for BREAKFAST.

It makes my taste buds tingle RIGHT DOWN TO MY TIPPY TOES. <– How CHAMPIONS start their days.

Especially when it’s in the form of bars that are only 150 CALORIES. WHATTHEWHAT. PUMPKIN COVERED brain X-PLOSION taking place RIGHT NOW.

Take that you “cheesecake in moderation” people. You can have your CHEESECAKE and eat it too.

P.S I never understand that saying. Who would get a piece of gluten free cake and not eat it? These are things that keep me up at night.

Moving onto the loaded with fall-flavor crust. That’s GLUTEN FREE. BUTBUTBUT still CRUNCHY and not soggy and weird like some gluten free goodies tend to be. Your teeth SINK into a layer of velvety-smooth-SUPER-rich-and-creamy tastiness and then, WHOA NOW SURPRISE, the CRUNCH of maple and ginger and SO MUCH FALL FLAVOR HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.

As you may have guessed, I pretty much am so obsessed with these bars that I can barely handle it. Which might (read: will) happen to you too. BUT, HAVE NO FEAR, I have the sweetest remedy for above mentioned situation:

Keep doing the hand–>cheesecake bar–> face dance until you’ve eaten enough for your brain to figure out that everything is going to be okay and that you will continue to function in life, even though you just created something SO majorly delicious BUT somehow light and healthy and YES PLEASE.

Even if it takes a few BATCHES. Press on friends. CHAMPION GOALS.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we need to sit down and have a little pow-wow about making cheesecake. IE: the IMPORTANCE of PUTTING DOWN THE HAND MIXER. IE, the sequel: I’m looking at you people who feel the need to mix and mix and mix and then maybe mix some more because WHAT IF each individual grain of cinnamon and swirl of pumpkin isn’t perfectly combined to create the ultimate of taste experiences?!?

STAP IT. Everything is fine. And you’re just blending ALL the air into the luscious, soft cream cheese. Which is going to make it crack when you bake it. And rise. AND JUST NOT DO GOOD THINGS.

Put it down. Walk away. Know that you are making a wise life choice.

Bossy-cheesecake-elitist-person moment over.

I’m just looking out for you. I used to be the over-mixing-person who fell victim to crackly, sunken-SAD cheesecake experiences.

I leave you with all of your hopes and dreams stacked on top of crispy-crunchy crust and finished with spicy-sweet swirls of pumpkin NUM.

DOITDOITDOIT.