Pecan Praline Bars
With a buttery crust topped with sweet, candied pecans these Pecan Praline Bars are perfection. These Pecan Cookie Bars are a great to add to your holiday cookie tray. Or just to eat… any other day of the year. This easy pecan bar recipe is low carb, keto, sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
We spent the last ten days in Minnesota visiting my husband’s brother, his wife, and their 4 children for Thanksgiving. Since we flew from NJ to MN I mailed a box of necessities (my sweetener, almond flour, coconut flour, and a few other things) ahead of time.
I wasn’t planning on making a ton of new recipes while we were visiting but I knew I’d want some sweets while we were there. I settled on making my Creamy Pecan Praline recipe into cookie bars. I knew that I’d be happy having a couple squares of this instead of traditional pumpkin and apple pie.
These filled my Thanksgiving sweet tooth and I’m planning on making another batch for Christmas. I may drizzle a little chocolate on top of them next time. There is always room for chocolate.
Ingredients
You only need seven ingredients to make these amazing bars.
- Almond Flour
- Coconut Flour
- Butter
- Heavy Cream
- Sweetener
- Pecans
- Vanilla
How to Make Pecan Praline Cookie Bars
These have an easy press-in crust topped with a basic pecan praline candy.
The crust only needs almond flour, coconut flour, butter, and water. It is simple but the one trick is to process it long enough in the food processor that the dough comes together in a ball. That is very important!
And then you need to cut the bars, and then chill them. The topping gets too hard to cut if you chill them before cutting. And if you try to take them out before chilling the crust can crumble. It is not hard to cut, chill, remove. Just do it in that order and you are good!
How to make Pecan Praline Topping
My tip here is to stir A LOT and make sure you arrive at a deep golden color before turning off the heat. If it seems to be taking too long turn up the heat a smidge and then keep watch. It is easy to burn cooked candies if you leave them unattended.
While you are at it use the same ingredients to whip up a batch of classic NOLA inspired Pecan Pralines!
More delicious Low Carb Pecan Desserts:
Cinnamon Crumb Cake Recipe w/ Pecans
Homemade Sweetener
One of the best parts of the trip was getting through security on our way home with a baggie of my sweetener in a carry-on. Since I make my own blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia I bring it with me when I travel.
But… that baggie of sweetener bought my husband a pat down and a thorough search of our luggage. The security man thought we were pretty funny. Mom, Dad, and 4 kids armed with baking ingredients needing to be searched. I guess I should’ve just mailed a box back home too!
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Pecan Praline Bars
Ingredients
Crust Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cups almond flour
- 1 1/2 tsp coconut flour (TEASPOONS)
- 2 tbsp cold butter
- 1.5 tsp cold water
Pecan Praline Topping:
- 8 oz chopped pecans toasted (I toast nuts at 400 degrees for 4-6 min until they are lightly browned and fragrant)
- 6 tbsp salted butter divided
- 6 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine crust ingredients in a food processor and pprocess until a uniform dough forms. This can take 2-3 minutes on high. Keep going until it forms a ball of dough.
- Press into the bottom of a 9 x 9 inch baking dish lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
- Combine 5 tablespoons butter, sweetener, and cream over medium heat. Stir until the sweetener is dissolved. Cook until it is a deep golden brown. As soon as it reached that deep color (right before burning) remove from the heat and immediately add the other 1 tablespoon butter. Stir until smooth. Add the vanilla and toasted pecans. Cool for 10 minutes.
- Pour on top of the prepared crust. Refrigerate until firm.
Amazing!!! This recipe is a keeper.
These taste great, but my praline topper crystalized. 😪
Sugar alcohols tend to do that over time. If you warm them up a little it should get better!
Made these tonight. Used 1/2 brown Swerve and 1/2 Bocha Sweet for the sweetener, otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The pecan goo was amazing! The only thing that kept me from 5 stars is that the crust was all crumbly and falling off the bottom as you tried to hold it and eat it. If I could perfect the crust, couldn’t be beat!
These are so easy and sooooo good! My husband won’t leave them alone.
This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!
The only issue I had was letting the pecan mixture set up too long. Tastes amazing!
I made this today and it came out perfect. Thank you for sharing.
Is there a dairy free substitute for the heavy cream?
I think coconut cream will work but I haven’t tested it.
I do a lot of dairy free baking professionally and I use a lot of full fat coconut cream instead of heavy cream. May need a little more time to cook and may not get the same colour, but it should work.
Could you use pyure or swerve?
I have not tested those so I can’t promise – sorry! Of those two I think swerve might work. I’m pretty sure pyure would not. Cooked candy recipes (like the topping for this) can be tricky.
Thanks, for the vanilla…do you use extract or flavoring?
Mine actually turned out on the dry side. It needed more of the liquid. The crust was also too thin. I would double the liquid and crust ingredients for a 9×9 pan. I chopped the 8 oz of pecans that I added to the liquid mixture. It was too much for the liquid. I didn’t leave any halves for the top.
I want to make thes se a part of out Thanksgiving meal for sure! Quick question, if I have only erythritol and stevia on hand (no xylitol) would these 2 combined be sufficient for this recipe? And if so, at what amounts?
Thank you so much for sharing!
Yes, use the amounts here but with all erythritol: joyfilledeats.com/sweetener
Could you please tell me how much Stevia you would use. I am very new to all of this? Thank you.
Pure stevia will not work in this recipe, sorry!
I used truvia baking blend, it worked.
I made this last night! It absolutely amazing and everyone loved it! It’ll be perfect for Thanksgiving, thank you ♥️
Your recipe looks delish. I only use Lakanto Monk Fruit sweetener. So about how much would I need of that? Thanks.
My sweetener is more concentrated than lakanto. You might want to use a little extra. I recommend tasting as you go.
I want to make this but can’t tolerate coconut flour. If I leave it out, how much almond flour would I need to add to make up for it?
Just an extra tablespoon. If the crust seems too wet you could always add a little more.
Just an extr a ton more of almond flour or add this to coconut flour measurement?
You can use 1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon almond flour.