I’m not a huge pie fan, but I’ve always loved the filling for pecan pie. This past spring I tasted some pecan pie bars that had a shortbread crust, so I thought I’d try making them instead of paying $6 for a small bar made by someone else. These are based on a recipe I found in Better Homes & Gardens; I made these and took them to a friend’s house; they were gone so fast that I didn’t even have a change to take a photo of them out of the pan! These will definitely be served at Thanksgiving this year.
Crust:
1 1/4 c. gluten free flour blend of your choice (I like THIS one, but it does contain dairy)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cold butter or nondairy butter, cut into chunks (Earth Balance has a good dairy free butter that is also soy free)
2 Tbs. ice cold water
Filling:
2 eggs OR 2 Tbs. flax meal mixed into 6 Tbs. warm water.
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. light corn syrup
2 Tbs. melted butter
1 1/2 tsp.vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1 1/2 c. pecans, chopped or whole
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8×8 pan with foil.
2. In a food processor, mix gluten free flour, powdered sugar, salt and butter. Once the butter is in pea-sized pieces, add the ice water and process briefly. At this point the crust ingredients should stick together, but not be sticky. If it is crumbly still, add more water by the teaspoon until the ingredients just stick.
3. Press the crust material into the baking pan, pressing to make sure that the crust is even.
4. In a bowl, mix the egg or flax meal gel, sugar, corn syrup, melted butter and vanilla until well blended. Stir in pecans.
5. Pour egg mixture on top of crust.
6. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the filling is set.
7. Let cool. Remove bars from pan by lifting edges of foil. Cut bars and serve! Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Follow
Can this be frozen and then baked on the day of?
If you want to prepare these in advance, I’d bake them, cut them into squares and then freeze them. I don’t know how they would turn out if you assembled them, froze them, thawed and then baked them.
I’ve never used flex seed meal for an egg replacer before. Is there anything special I need to do to the goo, like let it sit for a while? Could I use ener-g egg replacer instead? Thanks!
I suppose that you could use Ener-g egg replacer, though it isn’t my favorite egg replacer. If you want to use flax meal, first, make sure that you’re using the meal and not just flax seeds. If you have flax seeds, run them through a coffee grinder or food processor so that they are chopped up. Then add 1 Tbs. flax meal to 3 Tbs. warm water, mix and set aside for 5-10 minutes. The flax will start to absorb water and will turn into a gel-like consistency. Once it turns into the gel, it is ready to go into your recipe!
Thanks so much for your help! I tried the recipe with the flax seed meal, my husband stole a pecan off the top and said it was really good! I won’t know untill thanksgiving tomorrow. When I was making it I wasn’t sure how to tell if it was done, I ended up cooking it an extra 30 minuets because the pecan mixture was all runny. Is that normal or did I do something terribly wrong?
Hmmm, I’m not sure what the issue was. I’ve never had a mixture that is still runny after cooking 25 minutes…does your oven cook evenly? Just wondering if it wasn’t hot enough; if the sugar and corn syrup gets hot enough, it should set. Maybe it just needs to cool completely. I just made a batch of these today and, I’ll be honest, I sliced them up and had a corner piece. The cook is allowed to taste-test! 🙂 Please let me know how they turned out.
I too made these 11.25 for Thanksgiving and and found after the recommended cooking time the center was very runny. I checked it again after 10 min longer cooking-3 times, then finally my husband said maybe it just needs to set and cool. Well that did help. I found the liquid got between the foil and pan and stuck and to the bars creating a crumbly mess of the bottom. they didn’t cut up as easy as I’d like. However I’m the only gluten free one at Thanksgiving and they were for me. I’ve already eaten all the “ugly” pieces. I’ve plated all the pretty pieces to take this afternoon. and they are YUMMY! Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving.
It turned out great! A little chewy but I think that’s just because I cooked it so long. I will be making this again!
[…] Pecan Bars […]
Do you pack the brown surger? Your receipt doesn’t state packed ?
Thanks