Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

In partnership with my friends at Diamond of California, of course.

Welcome to pie week recipe #3! Though these aren’t shaped like your typical pie, they’re every bit as mouthwatering in square form. Especially when that square combines not only pecan pie + crust, but brown butter, quality nuts, pure maple syrup for extra flavor, and a sprinkle of sea salt on top.

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

It’s confirmed: diets do not stand a chance. Also, diets do not belong in pie!

While I don’t usually like to stray from the classic, unadulterated pecan pie– I do believe there is room for both traditional pecan pie (here’s my favorite pecan pie recipe!) and jazzy pecan pie. Who doesn’t want a little jazzy every now and then??

Let’s start with the crust– the brown butter crust. Like a toasted nut crust, brown butter brings a whole new level of flavor to the bars as a whole. It’s the same crust as my salted caramel apple pie bars, only doubled to make a larger batch and– of course– made with brown butter. All you’ll do is brown some butter on the stovetop, then mix it with sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour. The basic round-up of ingredients. Press it into the pan and pre-bake for a few minutes while you make the pecan pie topping.

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

Check out all those flavorful brown butter specks. ↑

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

Easy stuff in the filling including butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, cream, and eggs. Diet bars, remember? You know the drill– brown butter for best flavor. I chose to make these pecan pie bars without corn syrup and formulate a way to have maple syrup get the job done. It works like a charm here. You’ll boil butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and cream together into a syrup– then temper the eggs. Now before you go running at the term “tempering” let’s chat about it for a second.

Tempering means you’ll add a hot liquid to the beaten eggs. If you add the eggs directly to the pot of boiling ingredients– guess what? You’ll have some funky scrambled egg sauce. By slowly whisking *some* of the hot syrup into the beaten eggs, you are slowly bringing up their temperature– not shocking them. And then you’ll slowly drizzle and whisk that warm egg mixture into the pot. This way you’re avoiding that funky scrambled egg situation that sounds, and probably is, horrifying.

Stir in the pecans– and make sure they’re high quality like our favorites by Diamond of California. Then spread the topping onto the crust. Don’t be alarmed if the pecan topping is too syrup-y. It will cook just fine!

(Speaking of California, Kevin and I are in Napa right now! I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.)

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

Is there a brown butter pecan pie scented candle somewhere? Perhaps with a hint of maple? Because I want to smell these pecan pie bars baking all day long. I’m excited for you to experience it.

The flavors marry together wonderfully between the brown butter, maple, toasty pecans, and brown sugar. I’m not a fan of cloyingly sweet pecan pie, so I added a sprinkle of sea salt on top of the baked bars. They’re crunchy in some places, soft in others. Moist with big chunks of delicious pecans on a bed of brown butter. It most certainly doesn’t get better than this.

So much easier than baking an entire pie Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars

Much easier than an entire pie!