These Pecan Caramel Bars take just 15 minutes and 5 ingredients! Layers of salty crackers, chocolate, caramel and pecans combine to make homemade candy bars!
You start with a layer of buttery club crackers — then my favorite part — a thick layer of caramel stuffed with chopped pecans.
Followed with another layer of club crackers and then a top layer of caramel, chocolate and even more pecans!
My family, in true Southern fashion, are big on pecans and we always make holiday desserts that feature them.
I wanted to add another candy featuring pecans to our roster and had the idea to make a bar similar to all those toffee bars that have crackers in them.
However, instead of toffee, I wanted them to be caramel because I love the texture it gives them.
These Pecan Caramel Bars honestly remind me a lot of my favorite candy bar, 100 Grand Bars…but with pecans instead of rice crisps for the crunch.
Pecans beat plain rice crisps every time in my opinion.
Growing up in Texas we used to pick pecans all over the place and go home and crack them for eating.
However, since I moved to Florida you don’t see pecan trees around anymore like we used to.
While I sure love our palm trees, I miss my pecans! You can find pecan trees here occasionally, but it is definitely not like it was in Texas.
That means we buy our nuts these days and there is only one brand I will buy – Fishers Nuts. Fisher nuts are preservative free and non-GMO Project Verified.
And better yet, I love the resealable bag. Since most of my recipes do not use a full bag, it helps keep the nuts fresh for longer.I like to make chicken salad wraps for lunch sometimes and you only need a handful of pecans or almonds in those.
It’s nice to know that they will stay fresh for months in the zipped up resealable bag.
Make sure and look out for Fisher’s new packaging on shelves this month!
These Pecan Caramel Bars will make the perfect addition to your Christmas baking.
And while they are not a cookie — I would be super excited to find them in my cookie exchange.
I don’t know why we limit exchanges to cookies, it should just be dessert exchanges!
You only need a handful of ingredients and about 15 minutes of work to make these bars.
They store great in an airtight container and are a wonderful make ahead treat for the holidays.
They would also be great to ship to friends/family if you like to bake treats to mail. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!
Pecan Caramel Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 60 club crackers
- 2 11 oz bags caramels, melted according to package directions
- 10 oz Fisher Pecan Halves, chopped
- 1 11.5 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a 9×13 pan with foil. Butter foil.
- Arrange half of the crackers in the bottom of buttered pan in a flat layer.
- Pour one-third of the melted caramel over crackers in pan and spread caramel into an even layer. Sprinkle half of pecans on top of caramel and then top pecans with one-third more of the caramel on top.
- Top caramel layer with the remaining crackers. Pour remaining caramel on top of crackers and spread caramel into an even layer.
- In medium sized microwave safe bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth.
- Pour over caramel and spread evenly. Top with remaining pecans.
- Let cool until chocolate has hardened. This can take a while at room temperaure, but you can speed the process up by cooling them in the fridge. Allow bars to come back to room termparure before cutting and serving -- otherwise the caramel will be too hard.
- Cut into bars and serve! These bars can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week.
Video
Nutrition
This post is sponsored by Fisher Nuts. All opinions are, as always, 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that I love and that keep The Novice Chef running!
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Hate to say but this recipe was a disaster. I used Werther’s caramel and coated the foil with butter and spray and everything is sticking to the foil. Just threw away and lost $20.
These were delicious, but an absolute mess. The caramel never hardened sufficiently, and it permeated everything, below the crackers and then ran when a square was removed. If the pictures you included are actually this recipe, they were frozen when cut and photographed.
Hi Katie! What kind of caramel squares did you use? The caramel will harden back to whatever state it was originally in. As we are not making the caramel, nor adding any extra liquid to the melted caramel, it should harden back to the state it was before you melted it in the microwave. These bars were not cut when frozen. I used kraft square baking caramels.
Might make these for our end of the summer golf Luncheon
Can you use a butter spray for the pan?
Sure!
I made this recipe this weekend and it turned out great!! I followed the instructions, used melted caramel bits thinned with about 4 t of half and half. Buttered the foiled pan well, melted chocolate chips in microwave and began layering!! Let sit overnight to set up! Foil came off great and I cut into bars! Delicious!! Thank you!!
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When you cut these bars, did you cut in the shapes of the club crackers that you put down?
You can, but you don’t have to! Just use a sharp knife and you can cut in any shape you would like.
I love your recipe, but.. .I refuse to use crackers so I make a thin flaky crust that is beyond delicious. Everything else is the same. I’m such a fan!
Cranberry salad recipe
We just made some with our Texas Pecans. This is our first year in Temple and we have 4 100 year old pecan trees that were very generous this year. Thanks for the recipe!
What are club crackers? I live in Edmonton Alberta.kathy
a flaky buttery cracker.
Hi Jessica, these look and sound amazing! Thank you for sharing!!
I just made these and had no problem with the caramel. I melted the Kraft caramels in a small fry pan with about 4 tablespoons of heavy cream. I also added heavy cream into the chocolate when I melted it. It came out great more like n icing. The only problem I had was getting some of the tin foil that got stuck to the caramel and crackers on the bottom. It was a minor thing. These taste great!
I made these for Bible study and yes they were good but, they are so difficult to chew. We had to microwave them for 15 seconds to get them soft but the caramel still got hard and one lady with false teeth had to stop eating them. Also, the video makes it so easy pouring caramel and chocolate on and trying to spread it. I also had to use 4 bags of caramels instead of 2.
These look wonderful and sooo easy.
U must be in Southern FL. I live in the panhandle, about 40 miles north of PCB. (We were rt in the path of Hurricane Micheal last year) It’s a tiny town called Cottondale…there used to be pecan orchards everywhere here so we have pecan trees all over. I have 7 on my 3.8 acre property. Today…pecans are still pretty big, with a good bit of smaller buyers but cotton, & peanuts are the biggest crops. I live on Peanut rd, guess it’s called that since the commercial peanut buyer is rt around the corner & most on my road are peanut farmers.
Hi Jen! My family are all up around there, we might be related. Are you related to any of the Morris’s? Have a great day.
Make sure you butter the foil really well. The Carmel stuck to the foil when I tried the recipe. Use s double boiler to melt the chocolate. It will be done by the time the Carmel is melted. I was not happy with the results. Will probably not make the recipe again.
Can bottled caramel sauce be used insteaf?
I made this but it was a failure! Why is my caramel so hard and chewy and I couldn’t smooth it out like yours in the video. Did you add something to your caramel? Novice here too!
Can these be frozen
I have this same recipe, only mine are called 3 story bars. These are totally yummy, easy to make, and hard to screw up!! If you’re a novice baker or just not handy with making things from scratch, your friends will be impressed and you’ll be surprised how easy these are! Thanks for sharing.
This recipe was terrible to put together. The caramel did not cooperate. It hardened as soon as it was placed on the crackers. The crackers broke…I will never make it again. I hope it tastes good for all of the work that was put into it.
What a fiasco! I melted the caramels in the microwave, and as some others have commented, as soon as they are out of the mike, the caramel hardens and won’t spread. It made a huge mess of the cracker layer. It’s only now in reading through all the comments that I see you have a link to a Kraft website on how to melt caramels on the stovetop for caramel apples. Why not incorporate that MAJOR step into the recipe?! I had hoped to offer these as a gift for friends–don’t even know if I can convince my family to eat them, they look so nasty. What a waste of expensive ingredients! :-(
Would this work by using caramel ice cream sauce?
I thought these would be a great alternative to a baked cookie. I live in AZ and try not to use the oven much in the summer. I take in a treat to my co-workers every Monday morning, so today I tried these. I followed the recipe exactly. What a disappointment. The caramel would not spread, let alone pour. Trying to move the caramel around to evenly cover the crackers just resulted in the crackers displacing. For the final layer of caramel I did add a little heavy cream to thin it out. It spread somewhat better but by then I was so aggravated with the whole mess it didn’t really matter.
I put them in the fridge to set up, as suggested, and then allowed them to come to room temp for cutting. Another disaster. The first and second layers of crackers separated. I suspected I might have this problem as when I was assembling them I could see that it was unlikely they would set up as expected. Most of these are going in the garbage. There are maybe 10 squares that I would not be embarrassed to take to work. Very disappoint considering how expensive the ingredients are.
Hi I’m in Canada, and apparently we don’t have these club crackers :( Any recommendations for a substitute? Any advice would be appreciated!!
Any flaky buttery crackers!
Toppables are identical.
Made these last night with my girl scout troop full of 11 year old girls. We made three batches so they could all take some home to their families. Big hit with everyone! Thank you!
Question about the caramels. Is it a total of 11 oz, or two 11 oz bags?
Two 11oz bags, so 22oz soft caramels total!
Made these and definitely will not make again! Something that looked so easy ended up being a nightmare! Waste of time and ingredients
I found these to be a pain to make the carmel starts to set up as soon as it hits cold air very hard to spread as it makes the crackers move all over don’t think I will try them again disepoint
Made these tonight and loved them. I used Werther’s Original Soft Caramels I found at walmart in the candy aisle. Melted them with a little milk in a pan. Turned out perfect. Thank you for sharing recipe!
I made these yesterday. They taste delicious but it definitely wasn’t as easy as the video made it look. There were no directions on the package of kraft caramels I bought so I melted them in a saucepan with 1-2 tbsp of water. (per google) It melted just fine but when I poured it over the crackers it did not spread like in the video. It hardened very quickly. So I used a spoon and drizzled it evenly over all the crackers since I couldn’t spread it. I got the same final result, but dang was it a pain to get together. I’m wondering if you put more water in your melted caramel? They were also REALLY messy to cut up, but putting foil in the pan was genius. It just lifts right out so it’s fairly easy to cut. Family loves these bars.
Hi Sarah! Glad you enjoyed them!
I’m sorry, my package has directions for melting caramels on the back. Here is a handy video for the future: http://kraftrecipes.com/cooking-tips/cooking-videos/kitchen-basics-videos/how-to-melt-caramels.aspx
I melted my two bags of caramels with 1/4 cup of water added.
How do you melt the caramels? There are no directions on the package.
Hi Helen! Here is a handy video from kraft on how to melt caramels:
http://kraftrecipes.com/cooking-tips/cooking-videos/kitchen-basics-videos/how-to-melt-caramels.aspx
Followed the recipe exactly and they came out so hard we could barely cut them. I do not recommend this recipe.
Hi Brenda, what kind of caramel did you use? I used soft caramels from Kraft and they sliced easily with a sharp chef’s knife.
Agree .what a waste of great ingredients.
I made these tonight with Werther’s Original Soft Caramels that I bought at walmart. I also used generic crackers and dark chocolate because i like it more than milk chocolate. Mine cut great. Did you refrigerate yours? They are hard to cut when cold. I put mine in the fridge to chill faster and then let them warm up a little before cutting them. Perfection.
Toasted or raw pecans?
I used raw, but you can toast them if you prefer!
These look simple easy to make when in a hurry but need something sweet. I will be making these for my husband’s Christmas party next week. I also like how you spell “Lyla.” I am named after my Dad Lyle…and spelled with the “y.”
I am also a Lyla named for my father, Lyle. Nice to know I’m not the only one.
Oh this is brilliant ideas.
I am from South Africa. What biscuit can I use?
The club crackers are just a buttery flavored not So salty cracker. I don’t know what you have available, but I’m sure there is some kind of substitute. They are crispy but still soft .. Not like the more brittle saltine .. I hope this description helps you find an alternative.
I am not sure what kinds of crackers you have available in South Africa, but club crackers are crisp buttery crackers that are lightly salted. Hope that helps!
Oh my goodness these look amazing!
I’m from South Africa
what can I use instead of Club Crackers
The club crackers are just a buttery flavored not So salty cracker. I don’t know what you have available, but I’m sure there is some kind of substitute. They are crispy but still soft .. Not like the more brittle saltine .. I hope this description helps you find an alternative.
I am not sure what kinds of crackers you have available in South Africa, but club crackers are crisp buttery crackers that are lightly salted. Hope that helps!
Try graham crackers.
Oh my goodness, these look exquisite! I love pecan pie and pecan pie bars, so these are almost certain to become a quick favorite!
Thanks for posting Jessica!
Those are my favorite Pecans! I bet these are so good!
Oh goodness! That caramel layer looks insane!!!
Whoa….it’s like those cracker cookie things taken up about 100 notches! Trying it this weekend, for my cookie exchange!
These look amazing! And I LOVE how easy they are to make. :)
All that caramel is making me wish I already had them made!
These are so easy! What a great idea! I love all of the pecans!
These will be great gifts for my Christmas goodie bags!
I love how super simple these are and with ingredients I usually have on hand — sahhhh-weeet!!!!