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!
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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
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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
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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!!
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.