In my family, for the past few Thanksgivings, my speciality has been making the chocolate pecan pie. One level up from a classic pecan pie (which is delicious in its own way), the chocolate pecan pie is straight up indulgent. The melty rich chocolate with the nutty pecan flavor is roll-your-eyes-back delicious. The sweet filling alongside the crisp flaky crust almost makes it feel like a candy bar!
My biggest issue with this pie each year? It is so rich that often times people seem to be nervous about committing to an entire slice!
So this year I planned to try something different. I attempted to make my famous Thanksgiving dessert into a sheet-pan of bars instead of a pie. This involved some research… basically scouring Pinterest to see how everyone else made theirs! The filling is pretty much the same as with the pie, so what it really came down to was the crust on these bars. Did I want a true paper-thin pie crust? Did I want to go graham cracker style? Or with thick shortbread-like crust? So many options!
I ended up tweaking this recipe here to make it what I dreamed these bars could be. When I was making my crust, I pretty much eyeballed the consistency; I just knew it couldn’t be too dry. I wanted the crust to stick together nicely, not fall off and leave a trail of dusty crumbs once you took a bite. A great rule of thumb is to always add more butter, right? So that’s what I did!
Take a look at my recipe below, as well as my pictures for how it turned out.
If you make these Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars with Shortbread Style Crust, please let me know! I would love to see how they turned out and hear your thoughts on them as well! These are definitely going to be made again sometime soon in my kitchen. ♥️
Love always,
KW
Kelly Wolters Blog 