As the host of this month’s We Should Cocoa, I am taking the liberty of entering twice – no one can stop me! Mwahahaha…

The pony’s new job involves quite a lot of physical work meaning he needs to eat EVEN MORE than before, so I’ve been trying out quite a few recipes for various bars that are easily transportable and can snacked on whenever he has a spare minute.

I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip granola bars at Two Peas and Their Pod that seemed to fit the bill, as well as tying in nicely with my selection of pumpkin for We Should Cocoa.

In my mind, granola bars implies more add-ins, clumps and crunchy bits, which is why I’ve renamed these flapjacks, but really the name isn’t that important – the incredible smell of them baking is!

I have absolutely fallen in love with my pumpkin pie spice and am using it wherever I can. I don’t think I’ll be getting bored of it for a while, so apologies to any spice-haters – normal non-spice service will be resumed eventually…

I made a few substitutions to make the recipe fit what I had on hand, including swapping apple sauce for a mashed over-ripe banana and honey for golden syrup, but they turned out fine, and I think this recipe could probably be adapted a lot further if you wanted to.

Added bonus is that these bars are both gluten and dairy free (and vegan) with the pumpkin and banana taking the place of butter. If you wanted to make them healthier, you could probably swap the sugar for calorie-free sweetener – something I will be trying soon…

Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip flapjacks (GF) (recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

• 325g rolled oats
• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
• 125g fresh pumpkin puree
• 70g (1 small) ripe banana, mashed
• 65g golden syrup
• 150g light brown sugar

Add the oats, spice and chocolate to a large bowl and stir to mix together. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, banana, golden syrup and sugar until no lumps remain, then add this to the oat mixture, stirring in until all the oats are covered. Press down firmly into an 8×8″ square baking tin, lined with baking paper, then bake at 180 degrees for around 35 minutes, or until golden and crisp on top. The bars will stay chewy because of the pumpkin, but undercooking could make them soggy so be warned!

This is my second entry for We Should Cocoa - thanks again to Choclette and Chele for letting me host!

I’m also going to enter these flapjacks to the One Ingredient Challenge, hosted by Laura at How To Cook Good Food and Nazima at Franglais Kitchen, who chose pumpkin as this month’s ingredient.