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Chocolate Pecan Bars with Chocolate Crust (Vegan & GF)

5 from 2 reader reviews
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 12 bars
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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

Instructions

Make the crust

  • Line an 8x8 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.

Equipment

Recipe 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.
Vegan chocolate pecan bars are gooey and absolutely loaded with toasty pecans. Also gluten-free with an almond and oat-based crust.