Pecan Squares
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Like pecan pie in bar form, these indulgent pecan squares with a buttery shortbread crust and rich caramel-pecan topping are an irresistible (and easy!) holiday favorite.
If you’re a fan of my bourbon pecan pie and candied pecans, you’ll love these pecan squares. With a buttery shortbread crust and rich caramel-pecan topping, they’re an indulgent treat—the perfect office snack, potluck dessert, or hostess gift for the holidays. And the best part? They’re easy to make!
Table of Contents
“I made these for the first time about 2 months ago. My family has not stopped requesting them since. Today will be the 4th time in 8 weeks. Soo good!”
What You’ll Need To Make Pecan Squares
- All-Purpose Flour: Forms the base of the crust, providing structure and stability to support the rich filling. To ensure accuracy, measure the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off.
- Cornstarch: Blended with the flour, cornstarch gives the crust a crisper texture.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens the crust and helps achieve a shortbread-like consistency.
- Unsalted Butter: Creates a flaky, buttery crust by incorporating small pockets of fat that melt during baking. The butter in the filling adds richness and helps create the gooey, caramel-like consistency that holds the pecans together.
- Light Brown Sugar: Sweetens the filling with a deep, molasses-like flavor, complementing the pecans. When measuring brown sugar, always pack it tightly to eliminate air pockets.
- Honey: Adds sweetness and a touch of warmth, enhancing the overall flavor of the filling.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the flavor of the caramel with its aromatic richness.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: Adds creaminess and helps achieve the silky, smooth texture of the filling.
- Chopped Pecans: Provide crunch and a rich, nutty flavor that’s the star of these bars, adding texture to every bite.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Begin with the shortbread crust (which, by the way, is much easier than making a homemade pie crust). Combine the flour, cornstarch, confectioners sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until combined.
Toss in the pieces of butter.
Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size clumps of butter within.
Dump the mixture into a foil-lined pan.
Then press firmly with your fingers into an even layer.
Bake until set but not browned, about 17 minutes.
In the meantime, make the topping. Combine the butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt in a saucepan.
Boil gently for a few minutes.
Then stir in the heavy cream and chopped pecans.
Spread the pecan mixture onto the baked crust.
Bake until bubbling and caramel-colored.
Cool completely, then transfer baked bar to cutting board.
Cut into squares with a sharp knife.
Serve and enjoy!
Make-Ahead Instructions
The pecan squares will keep nicely, covered and stored at room temperature, for 3 to 4 days.
Freezer-Friendly Instructions
These can be frozen for up to 3 months. After they are completely cooled, double-wrap them securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap with the layers separated by wax or parchment paper. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
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Pecan Shortbread Squares
Like pecan pie in bar form, these indulgent pecan squares with a buttery shortbread crust and rich caramel-pecan topping are an irresistible (and easy!) holiday favorite.
Ingredients
For the Crust
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup Confectioners' sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
For the Filling
- 12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Generous pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 3 cups coarsely chopped pecans
Instructions
For the Crust
- Cover a 9-inch square baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Push foil neatly into corners and up sides of the pan, using two pieces if necessary to ensure it overlaps all edges (the overhang will help removal from pan). Spray foiled pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the flour, cornstarch, confectioners sugar and salt in a bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size clumps of butter within. It will seem dry; that's okay. Transfer mixture to the prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers into an even layer over the bottom. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. While the crust is in the refrigerator, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350° F. Bake the crust until crust is set but not browned, about 17 minutes. Set on rack to cool. Leave oven on.
For the Filling
- In a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and boil gently for 3 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and chopped pecans.
To Assemble and Bake
- Pour pecan mixture over crust (it's fine if the crust is still warm). Bake until filling is bubbling and caramel in color, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on rack. To cut, use the foil overhang to lift baked square out of pan and onto cutting board. Loosen the foil from the edges, then cut with a sharp knife into 2-inch squares. Store finished pecan squares in air-tight container and serve at room temperature.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The pecan squares will keep nicely covered and stored at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months. After they are completely cooled, double-wrap them securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap with the layers separated by wax or parchment paper. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (16 servings)
- Calories: 357
- Fat: 29 g
- Saturated fat: 11 g
- Carbohydrates: 26 g
- Sugar: 18 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 88 mg
- Cholesterol: 41 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hello Jennifer
Would it make a difference In the end result to sub gluten Free flour in the base of this recipe? Has anyone tried it? Thanks
Nancy
Hi Nancy, a number of readers have commented that they’ve made the base with gluten-free flour and have gotten good results. Enjoy!
I made it using cup for cup gluten free flour which has corn starch as one of the primary ingredients. I made the recipe as written, adding in 1/4 cup of corn starch and if I were to do it again I would skip the corn starch and use more flour instead. The shortbread came out very starchy. Otherwise it worked.
DELICIOUS! An absolute hit!! Its just perfect!
xo
Neha
These are DELICIOUS. I want to mix some cocoa powder in for a chocolate kick. How much powder would you recommend? TIA
So glad you enjoy them, Counselo. I’d probably just sprinkle some chocolate chips under the pecans, but if you want to go with cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons or so should do it.
Love this recipe! I made it last year for Thanksgiving and they were such a hit. I just made them again this year and they look great! Love them more than a pecan pie!
Cynthia
Just reporting back. I used dark chocolate chips sprinkled on the warm shortbread which melted perfectly while I made the fulling. Unbelievably delicious. Everyone raved.
But your original recipe is better without the chocolate. Thanks for all your work Jenn! You help make life yummy! 😋
Thanks for reporting back, Conselo! 🙂
Thanks for reporting back — glad everyone enjoyed them! 🙂
Questions:
1. If I make these Pecan squares the day before Thanksgiving, should I place the storage container in the refrigerator, and take them out of refrigerator a few hours before they will be served?
2. I can’t find chopped pecans (only pecan halves). I am hesitant to put them in the cuisinart because it is so uneven in its chopping. What do you suggest?
Hi Janet, You could refrigerate them and bring to room temp before serving, but it’s not necessary — they keep nicely in a covered container at room temperature for days. As for the pecans, I’d chop them with a knife. Hope that helps!
Re: chopping Pecans; you can put the pecans in a ziploc bag and bash them with a rolling pin!! This will produce a variety of pecan bits sizes
Love these and so much easier than making pecan pie! I did however use the Measure to Measure and Swerve ( gluten free and sugar substitute) I topping was perfect, but the crust was blah… but gluten free so expected. Ha. Next time I make, I will use larger baking dish or only use 2/3 of crust mixture. But it’s a win win!
The recipe is delicious. I have made this several times, but can I double this recipe and what size pan should is use if doubled ? Thanks Nancy
Glad you like it, Nancy! You can double and divide the recipe between two 9-inch square pans. If you don’t have two 9-inch dishes, you can use a 9 x 13 dish, but the whole mixture won’t fit, so I’d only make 1.5 times the recipe. Hope that helps!
this recipe is a true winner.
These are delicious! I’ve made them a couple times already. I would like to make them ahead for Thanksgiving. Do you recommend freezing them without cutting and then cutting once thawed?
Glad you like these! You really can go either way, but I’d air on the side of cutting them before freezing.
Absolutely fabulous!!! I have made Maida Heatters Pecan Bars for years and your recipe is better! I made the recipe exactly as written. I made these to prep ahead for Thanksgiving this year and needed to wrap my cookie tin in plastic and packing tape to keep my husband from eating them.😂😂😂Thank you Jenn for this fabulous recipe!
I made this recipe twice back to back. The flavor is incredible! However these bars literally fall apart which makes it very difficult to serve at the potluck I had in mind. The first time I followed the directions to a T. The second time I cut back the filling butter by 2 Tbsp, boiled the filling mix on the stovetop for an extra 3 minutes and even increased the baking time at the end by 5 minutes, hoping for a more “set” bar to no avail. These are seriously so delicious that I still would not hesitate to make and serve at home, but would love to have some suggestions on how to make a sturdier bar that would be easier to bring along?
Hi Peggy, you mentioned that you’d like these to be a bit sturdier – – are they crumbly when you go to slice them or is the filling gooey/not set?
Both I’m afraid 🤦🏻♀️ What am I doing wrong? I even waited for an hour + before I cut them but still the same result. They were still delicious mind you! I just threw them in muffin liners so they could be easily handled and eaten but would love them to maintain their bar shape
Hi Peggy, That’s a bit of a head-scratcher as I’m not sure where you may have gone wrong. There’s a chance they were a bit underbaked, so next time you make them, I’d leave them in the oven a touch longer to see if you get better results.
Thank you Jenn for taking the time to respond! I will try that! I appreciate all the awesome recipes that you share, bought your cookbook and have spread the word 😉 your site has been my go-to for every potluck and special occasion for more than 3 years!
Could the cornstarch be old?
Hi Carol, I don’t think it’s the cornstarch. If you’re using the exact ingredients and keeping the quantities the same as the recipe indicates, I truly don’t know what could be causing the problem. You mentioned that you let them cool for at least an hour. If you try them again, I would suggest letting them cool for at least several hours or overnight.
This was my first time making pecan shortbread squares and oh my lord, these are amazing ! Had to test them before giving them to my husband to bring to his work place, but they’re so good, now there may not be enough left for him to bring!
I love that no matter what recipe I choose in Jenn’s book/blog, the dish is a success! Thank you Jenn! ❤️
😊