Salted Caramel Maple Pecan Pie Bars — This pecan pie bars recipe is a fast, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe, but the bars taste like you slaved over them. So much easier than making pecan pie!
Easy Pecan Pie Bars
I’m not a big pie person. Mostly because I don’t love crust enough to justify the work involved. But pie bars? That’s a whole other story.
These maple pecan pie bars are a spinoff of my Salted Caramel and Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars. Chocolate is replaced with maple syrup and the bars are full of rich, smooth maple flavor. They just scream fall comfort food.
It’s a fast, very easy, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe, but the bars taste like you slaved over them. Love that.
The crust is made with brown sugar, flour, and butter and it’s tender, just sweet enough, and the perfect foundation for the filling. The filling is made with brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and an egg, before stirring in pecans and baking.
Before serving, I couldn’t resist drizzling salted caramel sauce over the top. Make your own, use Trader Joe’s, or a similar thick sauce.
There are so many textures and layers of flavor in every bite of these pecan pie bars with shortbread crust.
The soft shortbread crust, contrasted with the sweet, maple-ey, pecan filling, and everything tastes better after it’s been drizzled with salted caramel. So much faster and easier than making pecan pie!
What’s in the Pecan Pie Bars?
The ingredients list for this easy Thanksgiving dessert is short and sweet. Here’s what you’ll need to make pecan pie bars:
- All-purpose flour
- Brown sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Pecans
- Salted caramel sauce
How to Make Pecan Pie Bars
You’ll first need to make the buttery crust for these pecan bars. Cut the butter into a mixture of brown sugar and flour, then press into the bottom of a greased and lined 8×8-inch pan. Bake the crust until it’s just set.
Meanwhile, prep the pecan pie filling. Simply mix together the remaining ingredients and pour them onto the cooked crust. Bake the pecan pie bars until the center is set and not jiggly. I recommend using an oven mitt to shake the pan gently starting at about 16 minutes, and use your judgment from there.
These pecan bars need to sit on your countertop for at least an hour before they’re safe to slice and serve.
Can I Double This Recipe?
I’ve only made these pecan pie bars as written, but I think it’d be find to double the ingredients and bake these bars in a 9×13-inch pan.
Can I Freeze Pecan Pie Bars?
Yes, these freeze incredibly well. Let them cool completely, then slice and store them in a freezer bag. They’ll last up to 5 months in the freezer.
Can I Omit the Caramel Sauce?
Of course! The maple pecan pie bars are delicious with or without the salted caramel sauce on top.
Can I Use Gluten-Free Flour?
Quite a few readers have reported success using a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour alternative, so I’d say go for it!
Since the pecan pie bars are made with a shortbread crust rather than a lighter, flakier base, you can get away with going gluten-free here.
Tips for the Best Ever Pecan Pie Bars
You can use either light or dark brown sugar in this easy Thanksgiving dessert. Dark brown has more molasses in it, and I find it’s richer and more caramely tasting after baking. Use your favorite.
Also note that you may use either pure maple syrup or pancake syrup. I used sugar-free lite pancake syrup for this particular batch in an effort to save calories, but I’ve tested this recipe both ways and can’t decide which version I like better!
Lastly, note that you can use either raw, unsalted pecans or roasted, salted pecans in this recipe. I used raw pecans, but use your favorite.
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Salted Caramel Maple Pecan Pie Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, very soft
Filling
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark)
- ⅓ cup maple or or pancake syrup, I used sugar-free lite pancake syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt, optional and to taste (consider omitting if nuts are well-salted)
- 1 cup pecans, I used raw, unsalted, whole pecans; use halves and pieces, salted and roasted, or your favorite type
- about 1/4 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 35oF. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside. Don’t skip lining the pan with foil because bars are sticky and lining the pan will save lots of cleanup time and elbow grease.
- Make the Crust
- To a large bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, and cut in the butter using two forks or a pastry cutter. Keep working until butter is evenly distributed and pea-sized lumps and sandy bits form. The softer the butter is, the quicker and easier it is.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan and hardpack it with a spatula or hands to form a smooth, even crust.
- Bake for 17 to 18 minutes, or until crust is just set. Don’t overbake because pan is going back into the oven after filling is added. While crust bakes, prepare the filling.
- Make the Filling
- To a large bowl (same one used for crust is fine; just wipe it with a paper towel), add the egg, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, optional salt, and whisk until combined.
- Stir in the pecans; set aside until crust is done baking.
- After crust has baked, gently and carefully pour filling over crust (give filling one last quick stir before pouring it), smoothing the pecans with a spatula or use your fingers to evenly distribute them. Make sure they’re not clustered in one area and they’re as flat as possible because edges or corners that are jutting up will be prone to burning.
- Bake for about 16 to 19 minutes, or until center is set and not jiggly. Use an oven mitt to shake the pan gently starting at about 16 minutes, and use your judgment from there; bars will set up more as they cool.
- Place pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 1 hour before drizzling with salted caramel, slicing, and serving.
Notes
- *If desired, you can easily make your own Salted Caramel Sauce.
- Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Thanksgiving Dessert Ideas:
ALL OF MY THANKSGIVING RECIPES!
Best Homemade Apple Pie – This fabulous apple pie is a specialty of my grandma’s. The sauce for the apples is slowly poured over the lattice crust until it fills the shell. When it bakes, the top has a nice crispy coating over the flaky crust.
The Best Turtle Brownies — Super fudgy and loaded with chocolate, pecans and caramel! So.crazy.good!!!
Apple Turnovers — These apple turnovers take just 15 minutes to prep and are filled with the most incredible cinnamon apple filling. These are the ultimate fall dessert!
Homemade Turtles — Fast, easy, no-bake and just 4 ingredients! Chewy, gooey, salty-and-sweet! Homemade always tastes better!
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Crumble Bars — Move over, apple pie! These are an apple pie, apple crumble and cheesecake all in one!
Caramel Apple Crumble Pie — Apple pie meets apple crumble with loads of caramel! The easiest apple pie you’ll ever make. Goofproof 5-minute recipe for those of us who aren’t pie makers!
Buttery Pecan Pumpkin Spice Cookies — Buttery soft dough with big chunky pecans in every bite! Salty-and-sweet and so hard to resist!!
Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — An EASY, one-bowl, no-mixer apple cake that’s to-die-for!! Loaded with juicy apples in every bite, perfectly spiced, and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting! So DELISH!!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies — Rich, fudgy brownies topped with pumpkin and chocolate chips!! An EASY, no mixer pumpkin brownie recipe that’s FASTER than using a boxed mix!
Love your addition of maple to your original bars! That makes them even better in my eyes!! These look fabulous and it’s a good thing I’m in a hotel or I would be tempted to run into the kitchen and bake these up RIGHT NOW! Pinned
Pecan pie is so good! Pie bars are a really good idea, especially when you’re on a time-crunch!
I think we need to #pecanpieallthethings. Love these!
Thanks for pinning too :)
These bars look amazing! I am loving anything salted caramel these days, and these bars are calling my name!
I distinctly remember bookmarking your pecan pie recipe because it was the only one that ever stood out to me, ever–and now, I’m totally saving this one because it looks like handheld awesomeness! Love the salty goodness!
handheld awesomeness <--- thank you!
I have to admit – I love a good pie crust. But the work involved? No thank you! These bars look just perfect, so ooey-gooey-caramelly… Nom!
Averie,
These bars look delicious. Can’t wait to try them.
Annamaria
As a kid I loved pecan pie but as an adult I can no longer tolerate that thick goopy sweet filling…these bars give you all the best of pecan pie but without that huge layer of sweet goop…love that..I’m making these for thanksgiving so we can have pecan pie back on the table.
These are definitely much more nutty than goopy filling-based. I actually love pecan pie goo :) but can see where some people wouldn’t. With these, there’s no where near the gooey levels you’d find in pecan pie. LMK if you try these and I remember you telling me a week or two ago you were going to make a recipe for a block party or a game day? If you did, LMK what it was and how it went!
The pumpkin spice chex mix i’ll be making for Halloween…we’re having your sweet potato black bean enchiladas tonight…I’ve made them about 8 times…luv them
That’s awesome that you put the enchiladas on a regular rotation! So glad you like them and the chex mix, yes, that was the one! Okay now I remember :)
I love how simple these are to make Averie – I am not going to lie, making pie crusts is not my favourite thing to do either! And I love that you can eat bars on the go! Pinned :)
Thanks for pinning!
These look awesome! Although I bet you’d have a new appreciation for pie crust if you gave it a try. The recipe I use could convert anyone :)
When it comes to empty, white, buttery and carby calories, I want them in the form of cookies, not crust :) But I have no doubt your recipe is awesome!
A press & bake shortbread/cookie crust wins out over regular pie crust for me too. There was a time when I kind of liked rolling out a homemade crust but I got over that pretty quickly. I love the maple syrup in these instead of the corn syrup many recipes call for. These are some great looking bars!!
Glad you got over the dough rolling out thing pretty quickly. Me? I never really started :)
Delicious pie in handheld form. Perfect. And I agree – the pie-making process is annoying, haha.
These bars look so good! My waistline also likes that you can freeze the excess and then lift some out of the freezer for a treat!
Amen for that, right :)
I look forward to pecan pie all year – I can’t believe I never thought to do a salted version! I am seriously drooling.
Thanks for pinning and yes, the salted caramel is the perfect counter-balance to the sweet pecan filling! If you’re a pecan pie person, I bet you’d dig these!
I love love this filling Averie!! Gorgeous looking bars!
I am with you on the crust – too much work. But these bars look perfect. It’s all about the filling anyway! Pinned!
Thanks, Anna! Have a great weekend!
Pie crusts are really not hard to make at all, I think the perceived challenges with pie crust making are overrated. Taste wise, home made crust doesn’t stand close to store bought.