Rich, nutty, caramelly, toasty, and buttery pecan pie bars! These are excellent and easier than a full pecan pie! The crust is delicious, tender, and buttery. The filling is gooey and the pecans are deliciously toasty! These bars just require a little patience and learning how to temper eggs, which is a very useful pastry skill!
The custard recipe is originally from: https://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/bars/gooey-pecan-pie-bars/
The crust recipe is originally from: https://cookiesandcups.com/pecan-pie-bars/
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature (salted or unsalted, I use half of each) (113 g)
1/4 cup sugar (48 g
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (193 g)
Topping:
2/3 cup + 1/2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar (I used half light and brown) (123 g)
2/3 cup + 1/2 Tbsp. light or golden corn syrup (234 g)
1/3 cup salted butter (75 g)
3 eggs (~150 g)
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract (3 g)
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans (170 g)
Directions:
Prepare a 9x9" baking tray with parchment paper. You can grease it and cut the bars out that way instead. Also, the recipes linked above use 9x13" pans if that is all you have available.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
To make the crust, in a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar together until well combined.
Add the flour and mix until it's a crumbly sandy texture. Dump the mixture into the pan and press out evenly to all the sides and corners, creating a flat compacted layer.
Bake until the crust is golden around the edges, about 18 minutes.
To make the filling, in a saucepan add the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Turn the stove on medium heat and melt the mixture until it bubbles, stirring constantly. As soon as it starts bubbling, remove from the heat.
Whisk the three eggs together in a mixing bowl until well combined. Gradually pour in the sugar-butter-syrup mixture into the eggs while whisking constantly.
Add the chopped pecans and vanilla into the filling. Pour over the baked crust.
Bake for ~25-30 minutes, or until the filling is set (no jiggle around the edges, but a slight jiggle in the middle like jello).
Remove onto a wire rack and cool for 2 hours before cutting (if you cut too soon it will be messy).
Store covered in the refrigerator up to 5 days, or in the freezer up to 1 month.
Makes 16 bars.
The ingredients I used.
Use the pan you will bake in to help cut out a parchment liner - this helps take the bars out later to cut.
And it fits right in! Next we will make the crust!
Before mixing the butter and sugar together.
After mixing the butter and sugar together.
Before mixing in the flour.
After blending the flour in. It's very crumbly but that's good!
Pour it into the pan.
And press down evenly! Then you will bake it.
After baking! Not super golden but it will definitely get golden when baked with the filling.
The we will start the filling. Add the butter, corn syrup, and sugar to a saucepan. Begin heating.
Heat and stir constantly until it starts to bubble like this. Then take off the heat!
Whisk the eggs together. Then you'll slowly stream in the sugar butter mixture until completely combined while whisking constantly.
After combining the butter-sugar mixture with the eggs.
Then mix in the pecans and vanilla and the filling is ready!
Before baking.
After baking! It's puffy but will flatten out as it cools. I let mine cool in the pan.
After it cools in the pan you can remove the bars before cutting if you used parchment paper.
Side view, some of the filling usually goes down the side but it is a little more chewy and tastes delicious!
Then cut the bars and serve! A sharp serrated knife works well for getting through the pecan layer.
The bottom crust is golden!
Exquisite!