These chocolate pecan bars are a gooey and decadent dream! I use maple syrup and a bit of brown sugar instead of corn syrup to sweeten and bulk out the filling. After running several tests with all kinds of egg replacements, a combination of arrowroot starch and ground flax proved to be the winner. The lovers of pecan pie, butter tarts, and just crowd-pleasing vegan desserts in general will flip for this one. And with chocolate in the mix? Hard to beat!
This is my ultimate fantasy bar! I love pecan pie/bars, but I wanted to get chocolate involved in both the filling and crust. The gluten-free chocolate crust with almond and oat flour is so tasty on its own. It has a nice snap and deep cocoa flavor. You just mix it up in a couple minutes in the food processor.
Toasting the pecans really makes these vegan pecan squares extra special. Just extra roast-y, crisp, and satisfying. Once they’re chopped up, you just have to whisk the other chocolate pecan bar filling ingredients in a bowl.
I know that apple cider vinegar seems like a curve ball, but it does help to lift the flavor of everything else and give the filling some dimension. The nature of this recipe is very sweet and rich, but the vinegar keeps everything in balance. Versions I tested without it were noticeably one note.
Those who follow me on Instagram know what an effort this recipe was to bring to the finish line. The end result is worth it! These are pretty easy to make and so nice as part of a little spread of mixed sweets. If you’re looking for another classic bar recipe, I recommend these Creamy Vegan Lemon Bars.
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Chocolate Pecan Bars with Chocolate Crust (Vegan & GF)
Ingredients
Chocolate Crust
- 1 cup (96 grams) almond flour
- ⅓ cup (31 grams) oat flour
- ¼ cup (53 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons (14 grams) arrowroot starch
- 2 tablespoons (10 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons (70 grams) cold vegan butter, cubed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Pecan Filling
- 1 ¼ cups (131 grams) pecan halves
- 2 tablespoons (12 grams) ground flax
- 6 tablespoons (89 mL) water
- ½ cup (106 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (118 mL) maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons (14 grams) arrowroot starch
- 3 tablespoons (42 grams) vegan butter, melted and cooled
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (85 grams) vegan chocolate chips
- flaky sea salt, optional
Equipment
Notes
- You absolutely need to cool these completely before cutting.
- A metal pan with straight sides is ideal! It just gives the crust that extra snappy quality.
- You will get a bit of liquid filling seeping into the crust along the edges—it’s just the nature of the recipe! I tried excessively lining the pan with nonstick foil and this did seem to help, but the foil really loved to get into the crust creases and sticky bits (despite being nonstick!!). I was peeling out little pieces from the bars by hand with that batch.
Instructions
Make the crust
- Line an 8×8 square baking dish with two parchment “slings”, ensuring that there is a bit of overhang. I like to spritz a bit of oil on the dish and in between the paper layers. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a food processor fitted with the “S” blade, combine the almond flour, oat flour, brown sugar, arrowroot, cocoa powder, and salt. Pulse a few times to combine. Place the cold vegan butter cubes on top of the flour mixture and drizzle the vanilla. Pulse the mixture until it starts coming together, about 12 times.
- Dump the crust mixture into the prepared baking dish and spread it out. Then, press it in evenly with your fingers until it’s covering the entire base. It will all even out as it bakes, so don’t worry if it doesn't look perfect
- Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly dried and darkened. While it’s still warm, use the back of a spoon to press the crust down. Let the crust cool.
Make the filling
- Spread the pecans out on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven to toast for 8-10 minutes. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, chop them roughly and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground flax and water. Stir them together and set aside for 5 minutes to gel.
- Once the flax has gelled and thickened, add the brown sugar, maple syrup, arrowroot, vegan butter, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and salt. Whisk this mixture together until smooth.
- Set aside about ¼ cup of the chopped pecans. Fold the remaining pecans into the brown sugar maple mixture along with the chocolate chips. Stir the mixture up a bit and transfer to the baking dish, spreading it out evenly over the cooked crust.
- Place the baking dish in the oven. Bake until only the very center of the bars is slightly jiggly, about 1 hour. When they’re fresh out of the oven and still molten, sprinkle the reserved chopped pecans and flaky sea salt (if using) over the top. Let the bars cool in the pan completely.
- Using the parchment “slings”, pull the fully cooled bars out of the pan onto a cutting board. Gently remove the parchment and, using a sharp chef’s knife, cut 3 equal columns. Then cut each of those columns into 4 equal pieces.
- Store the finished bars in an airtight container for up to a week.
Should it matter what brand of vegan butter I use? I’m in the US and used the country crock non dairy sticks. It seamed like the butter separated out? They were very foamy when cooking and greasy big time after they cooled. Any idea where I went wrong?
Hi Krystal,
I’m sorry that the recipe did not work for you. I live in Ontario, Canada and used the Loblaws store brand vegan butter (President’s Choice) when testing this. This butter is largely coconut oil and vegetable oil-based. The Country Crock appears to have a slightly higher fat content, but that shouldn’t change the result drastically. There is a bit of foam on the surface right when the bars come out, but this subsides and should not give an overall greasy result. Did the filling seep over the edges and into the crust? And you did bake the crust first and press it down before adding the filling, right? If I can get Country Crock somewhere here in Canada, I’m going to test it with this recipe because I know it’s a common brand in the US. I really want to figure this out!
-L
I did bake the crust and then press it down. I made my own almond flour from slivered almonds, just in case that’s a clue. Lol. I don’t think I had seeping as the crust went right to the edges of my pan. I am going to get more pecans and see if this mishap was just a fluke.
I wonder if the homemade almond flour isn’t fine enough to form a proper crust barrier, which makes the whole thing greasy? The almond flour that I use is extra finely ground. The homemade almond flour wouldn’t account for the butter separation in the filling though, so that’s still a puzzler for me. I already bought a couple extra types of vegan butter to test this again, so we’ll see what happens!
-L
Delicious!! As usual
Forgot to put a five star rating with my comment so popping backing to do just that :)
Made these yesterday and omg so so good!!! Insanely good. I shared these with my boyfriend and a friend and they loved them too. You’re a genius <3
Hey Laura! This looks great. Do you think corn starch would work in place of the arrowroot starch? I have a Costco size tub to use.
Thanks!
Cornstarch will sub beautifully one-for-one!
-L
Looks devine and perfect for Thanksgiving. May I ask, can coconut oil be used in place of the butter in both places? We are dairy free totally. Thank you.
Hi Danielle,
I do specify *vegan* butter in this recipe (I used a supermarket’s store brand for this one), but Earth Balance and Miyoko’s are popular brands that are totally dairy-free. I did a test round with coconut oil and it made the crust a bit greasy (even after adjusting the amount to account for water in the vegan butter) and I didn’t particularly enjoy the flavour or texture in the filling–it was almost like the filling separated in a way. Just not pleasant overall and honestly hard to work with.
-L