Pecan Pie Bars with Walnut Shortbread Crust

This is a hearty holiday dessert which has some of the flavors of pecan pie, but without using corn syrup. These are best made the night before (or early in the day) to allow the shortbread crust to set.

We really like adding toasted walnuts wherever we can because they are a nice filling addition and will take away the sweetness from things that may be too sweet.

Ingredients

Walnut Shortbread Crust:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups toasted, finely chopped walnuts

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pecan Pie Topping:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (brown the butter)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups toasted roughly chopped pecans

2 tsp vanilla

Cooking Directions

Heat the oven to 350ºF and prepare a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray (or with foil or parchment paper, leaving enough hanging over so you can pull it out to cut).

Toast the walnuts (use a pat of butter in a skillet and toast until they are very nutty).

Using a mixer, mix the butter and brown sugar. Add in the flour and salt and mix until together. Add the toasted walnuts and combine.

Press the crust into the pan and bake for 25 minutes.

If you don't know how to brown butter, I put it into a saucepan or small skillet and cook on medium heat, stirring for around 5-8 minutes until it starts to get brown flakes and has a rich, nutty smell.

While the crust is baking, you can make the topping - after you brown the butter, this takes less than 10 minutes, so I like waiting until there is less than 10 minutes left in the baking time to work on this so I can pour it directly on top of the crust when it is done, and it doesn't have time to set on its own.

After browning the butter (browning is optional, you could just use butter), add the brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, heavy cream, and salt into the saucepan and stir over medium heat. Continue to stir until it starts to simmer. Do not simmer (bubble up) for more than 1 minute or the topping may become too hard. Remove from the heat and the pecans and vanilla and combine.

Remove the crust from the oven and immediately pour the pecan over the crust, spreading it and smoothing it out to cover the entire crust.

Return the pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Take the pan out and allow to completely cool before cutting. We put these in the fridge overnight and they firmed up very nicely for cutting into squares.