Chocolate Chip-Pecan Pie Bars
These pecan bars were the very first thing that I ever baked on my own. Like, EVER. Sure, I helped my mom make Christmas cookies when I was a kid, but I began baking on my own in high school with this very recipe. These bars showed up at a family party and given my affinity for pecan pie, it’s no surprise that I was totally and completely enamored with them. My grandma gave me the recipe and I found myself making them quite frequently. They quickly became my “signature” and were for a long time – I would take them to work potlucks, family parties, and anywhere else I thought people could use a little something sweet.
These bars are a breeze to throw together and don’t require much in the way of equipment or time. You can easily mix together the crust ingredients with a fork, a pastry blender, or your fingers – just make sure you get the mixture to a crumbly texture. The bars need to cool completely before you cut them or the filling and chocolate will smear and run a bit. I actually prefer these chilled in the refrigerator, but you can keep and serve them at room temperature if you’d like.
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Ironically, I never made these bars around Thanksgiving, but it goes without saying that they are the perfect portable Thanksgiving dessert. They’re a great alternative for a full-blown pie, and you could easily omit the chocolate and add more pecans if you’d like. Although, I do think the combination of chocolate and pecans is something extra-special.
Do you remember the first thing you learned how to bake all on your own?
One year ago: Sweet Potato Scones with Maple Cream Glaze
Two years ago: Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie
Four years ago: Pecan Pie
Five years ago: Lebkuchen
Chunky Pecan Pie Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (113.5 g) salted butter, at room temperature, (1 stick)
- ¼ cup (55 g) packed light brown sugar
Filling:
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup (255.75 g) light corn syrup
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups (306.25 g) coarsely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, or chocolate chunks in a bag!
- 1½ cups (148.5 g) chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.
- For the crust, mix together the flour, butter and brown sugar until crumbly. Press into the baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown.
- For the filling, beat the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla extract with a wire whisk. Stir in the chunks and pecans. Pour evenly over the baked crust and bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cool completely and cut into bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator if you live in a warm/humid area with no air conditioning).
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
If I want to leave out the chocolate chunks in the recipe…can I?
Will that change the consistency of the bars?
Do I need to sub the chocolate with more pecans or something else? Thx!
You can omit the chocolate without a problem. You can add more pecans if you’d like.
About how many more pecans would you add? I also want to try these without chocolate.
As much more as you’d like. You can replace all of the chocolate amount, or less, just depends on how many pecans you want to include!
Awesome thanks! My husband volunteers at a prison rehabilitation program in Texas where we live and I make the guys “treats” once a month. I’ve made several of your recipes so far and they love them.
Just made these, look delicious, but haven’t tried yet! Thanks!!!! Love that they are so easy!!!
These were a huge hit, especially with my pecan pie loving friend!
Hi Michelle,
These look perfect for a long weekend, when I have no time to make a real pie crust! Can the chocolate be omitted? (I hope you were sitting down when you read that!)
Thanks a lot…best of luck moving in to your new house.
Sorry for another question…I’m just curious as to why you use granulated sugar instead of brown sugar.
It’s an old recipe from my grandma that I always loved, so I just rolled with what she did :)
Haha! Yes, you can omit :)
Just what I’m looking for to bring to a Kentucky Derby party. If I add two or three tablespoons of bourbon in Derby tradition, should I decrease the corn syrup accordingly?
Hi Linda, I think you could add the bourbon without adjusting anything else in the recipe. I would not decrease the corn syrup.
Hi Michelle,
I’ve made these and they were awesome, thank you!! Do you think this recipe could be used to make a pie instead of bars? It’s just so much simpler to me and requires less dirty pots ;)
I have never tried to use this filling for a pie, but if you do it, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
these were good, but there was definitely too much chocolate in them (if that’s possible). All I could really taste was chocolate, if I had used maybe half I think these would be much better. However my mom was all over them and they were really tasty nevertheless.
HOLY CRAP these were amazing/now my new favorite recipe. I plan on adding some (1 cup) pumpkin to them next time I bake them (ahem probably this week!) because pumpkin pecan pie is my fav!
PS – my experience: I love chocolate, so I also put chunks of a broken chocolate bar on top of the bars before baking – which honestly was a mistake! These bars are so rich and chocolatey already that the extra chocolate was too much and I lost the good ole pecan pie taste. Stick to the recipe peeps!
Hi, I’m from Europe and corn syrup isn’t widely available here, neither is agave nectar (I’ve never seen it before). Would any sweet syrup work? There’s Lyle’s golden syrup or the Dutch rietsuikerstroop which is a bit like light molasses I guess. Also, how do you determine if the filling is set?
I grew up in Canada and definitely know Lyle’s Golden Syrup — would very much work in replacement. It is a bit thinner (as I remember) so you might want to add a tablespoon of flour in with the filling to tighten it.
These are so delicious! Everybody in my office loved them. One question: the filling was a little too liquidy. Did I not cook it long enough? It seemed set when I took it out of the oven. (I followed the recipe exactly.)
Hi Diane, It sounds like they either weren’t cooked long enough or weren’t allowed enough time to set before cutting into them. If your house is a little warm or humid it may have affected them setting up. I would pop them in the refrigerator next time to ensure that they set. Also, I always recommend using an oven thermometer to ensure the oven temperature is correct. You could have had them in there for the correct amount of time, but if the oven temperature was off it won’t matter.
Michelle, am finally going to make these this weekend. Do you use dark corn syrup or light? Thanks so much!!! Can’t tell you how much I love your blog!
For this recipe, I use light corn syrup. Enjoy the bars!
Michelle, what brand of chocolate do you like to use for these?
I know that Nestle makes a “chocolate chunks” product that I’ve used in the past, but lately I’ve been rough-chopping Ghiradelli baking bars. I think they taste much better!
Thanks! And sorry for additional questions but do you like ghirardelli semi-sweet or ghirardelli bittersweet for these? Finally, do you use unsalted butter or salted? (I see no additional salt in the recipe so wasn’t sure.)
You’re welcome! For these I like the semi-sweet. As for the butter, you can use salted butter and no additional salt, or you can use unsalted and add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, whichever you have on hand.
These look sinful! I will be making them to take to work for our Christmas party!
I adapted this amazing recipe & posted the results on my blog. Huge success!
xo
http://allykayler.blogspot.com/2011/09/48.html
I made these yesterday and they are insanely delicious! I love your site and your recipes. I even bought a scale to weigh my dry ingredients (would love to know how to convert cups to grams/ounces) and I would LOVE more of your bar recipes if you have more?! I love making bar desserts, so delicious and easy! Actually, I made your coconut and chocolate blondies yesterday. I think I’m going to make something else this weekend, I can’t get enough of your recipes! I take them to the trainers at the gym that I go to and they eat them in minutes :)
Hi Naomi, So glad you liked these! You can find more bars and brownies listed in my recipe index here: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/recipe-index/
These are in the oven right now…..looks like I will be using many of your recipes. i have also shared them on FB.
I am needing a recipe to make for my brother as a gift…I want to use this one b/c he LOVES pecan pie but I will be shipping it to him from nc to fl…I need to know if these can be shipped without having to be refrigerated and how long they will last…
Hi Shay, Yes, these can be shipped without refrigeration (I store them at room temperature in the house). I would say they last a good 3 to 5 days, maybe a couple days longer.
I have a Christmas potluck at my work this week and couldn’t decide what dessert I wanted to bring. Thank you for solving that dilemma for me. Pecan Pie is such a traditional dessert and these bars will be something a little different that I think everyone will enjoy!
What a fun way to enjoy pecan pie without the hassle of making a pie crust!
Wow, these look absolutely delicious!
These look wonderful! Makes me wish I could eat pecans!
Yum! I love pecan pie, and especially in the form of a bar! Delish!
Hi Kim,
I’m not sure what blurb you saw, but when I Google this recipe, the blurb that shows up is the beginning of the recipe starting with the ingredients for the crust.
When I Googled pecan bars the Google blurb for this recipe says that “strangely enough there is cocoanut it it but you can’t taste the cocoanut.” I do NOT see that there is coconut in this at all ~~ STRANGE!
Kim- You’re seeing one of the comments that recommended a different pecan pie bar recipe with coconut by Paistry Queen. Did your search query include the word coconut? Google tailors the blurb to the search.
These bars are pretty sensational. I included them as a dessert option for Thanksgiving this year and they were a total hit! Thanks for the recipe. Keep them coming!
I tried the recipe with 1/3 cup of agave nectar and the corn syrup was not missed. Thanks for the recipe, they were NUM!!! Wish I hadn’t found them since they’re so addicting
Hi Anne,
I actually weigh all of my baking ingredients, but I would suggest using the liquid measuring cup for corn syrup. I hope you enjoy the pecan bars!
Hello, I intend to make these delicious looking bars. WOuld like to know when measuring the corn syrup, do you use the liquid measuring cup or the dry ings measuring cup?
I could eat those right now! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sara – No problem at all, thank you for featuring me on your blog! :)
Contemporary Confections – I did a little research on substituting agave for corn syrup and found that you can indeed substitute, but that it should be used in a 1:2 ratio to the corn syrup. Since the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of corn syrup, I would recommend using about 1/3 cup agave in its place. The notes I read said that the other liquids in the recipe should be increased by about 1/3 cup. However, there are no other liquids in this recipe. The corn syrup helps to bind the “filling” in this recipe, so using less agave may cause it to be a bit drier, but I can’t be totally sure. Since I have never made the substitution I can’t guarantee how it will turn out, but would love for you to let me know if you try it!