If you are looking for a sweet treat to munch on throughout the week or maybe a special treat to take to a party, these Salted Caramel Pecan Bars will be perfect. A rich low carb cookie bar that is loaded with pecans and salted caramel chocolate chips, how can they not be good, right?

New Lily’s Chocolate Chips Worthy of A New Recipe!

 A few weeks back I found some new flavors, or at least new to me, of the Lily’s Stevia Sweetened Chocolate chips on the baking aisle of my Wal-Mart. 

Our local store has always had the dark chocolate chips but these new flavors jumped out at me that day when I was shopping and I knew I had to grab one of each kind!

If you haven’t see these new flavors I’m referring to they are Mint Chocolate, Salted Caramel, and Butterscotch! I was lucky enough to try the salted caramel ones a month or so back because I had ran across them on my last trip to Whole Foods.

However, I was thrilled to see those and the others locally! I love how low carb and sugar free specialty foods are making their way into our standard grocery stores.

My family has now tried all the new flavors, and of course, we’ve really enjoy all of them. So far I think the Mint and Salted Caramel are my favorites but my boys love the butterscotch chips.

Last week I shared my latest treat, Butterscotch Pie, using their favorite so if you are a fan of that old fashion flavor you can see that yummy recipe by clicking HERE.

I’m still in the works for recipes for the yummy mint ones, but until then I wanted to share this super quick and delicious cookie bar recipe featuring my favorite , Salted Caramel!

When Life Throws a Curve Ball, Drop Cookies become Cookie Bars!

On the day that I had planned to start working on this recipe I was leaning toward making it as individual drop cookies. I thought I had set aside plenty of time for baking, but oh did that day have other plans.

The chaos of the day started right as I woke up. We noticed that one of our roosters had escaped our fenced in yard somehow and was trapped on the other side.

Now that might not seem so bad to you guys, but just imagine my freight when I noticed the dog chasing behind him, oh my did we panic!!

Thus began the great rooster chase and rescue of 2020. Not to mention the downhill spiral of day at the Bucci house!

Never fear, the rooster, whom we now call “Lucky” is alive and crowing today but that was just the start of time consuming problems that filled my day.

Which meant that all of the time that I had set a side for cookie development had slipped away so fast. It was later in the evening before I realized that I hadn’t even set the ingredients, like the butter, out on the counter to soften.

Cookies vs. Cookie Bars. What’s the Difference?

Not wanting to push this recipe trail off again, I decided to go ahead and work on the recipe, but instead of taking all the time to make the drop cookies, I decided to take a short cut and make them into cookie bars instead.

If you’re wondering what the difference is between cookies and cookie bars, or wondering if the recipes would be vastly different I’ll delve into that a bit next.

But I will say now, there isn’t a huge standout difference in the two varieties!  

Most drop cookie recipes can be made into bars. In most cases a cookie recipe that yields about 3 to 4 dozen baked cookies would make a great cookie bar when baked in a 11×8 or a 3×9-inch pan.

Choosing the pan size for your bars simply depends on how thick you want your bars to be when baked and how many servings you want them recipe to yield.

For this recipe I like them thicker, so use a 11×8 glass baking dish and I get about 20 nice size cookie bars. 

When it comes to baking cookie bars, you would bake the bars at the same temperature you would most cookie recipes, but naturally you will need increase baking time since they are thicker. 

I usually end up baking mine cookie bars about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the bars comes out clean.

You don’t want to overcook them or they might dry out and you’ll miss out on that nice soft center right out of the oven! Oh, after you bake them, let them sit and cool for at least 5 minutes (10 is best) before you cut them so they won’t fall apart. 

With just that small change in the recipe that evening I saved a ton of time by going the cookie bar route instead of scooping out individual cookies (15-18 minutes of bake time per tray if scooped out)

So these bars are quicker, but just as delicious! I was a happy girl too, since I got to end that hectic day with a glass of almond milk and a sweet treat after all!

It was definitely my saving grace after the day I had, let me tell you!

Gathering Your Ingredients and Baking the Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

Have you noticed I like easy recipes yet? I think I mention it each time I do a new post, because it is true that not only do I like simple, but quick recipes are absolutely the most important thing to me in this season of life. 

I mean, don’t get me wrong, who doesn’t love trying new fancy recipes and they are so beautiful when they turn out right?

But as a full time working mom that homeschool, I just don’t have the extra time right now to develop a lot of super fancy or complicated recipes.

Nor do I have a lot of time daily to cook them for my family, but hopefully one day I will have more time to venture out and try some fancy intricate recipes like macaroons or tiramisu (because I love both).

So for now these easy cookie bars are my busy mama jam!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• finely ground almond flour
• chopped pecans
• large eggs
• salted butter
• vanilla
• molasses (optional)
• plan whey protein
• THM Super Sweet  or Pyure Brand Sweetener 
• Lily’s Salted Caramel Chips

These bars can be made without any special ingredients since so many stores sell whey protein these days and if you don’t have a favorite sweetener like I do (THM Super Sweet) then you can simply use the Pyure brand from Walmart. 

With just a few minutes and these simple ingredients these Salted Caramel Bars will be mixed up and ready for the oven in no time.

Let’s Mix and Bake!

Simply start by adding the butter, sweetener, and molasses to a small sauce pan and heat until the butter is melted then remove it from the heat.

Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and add in the eggs and the vanilla. Mix those ingredients up a bit then drizzle in the melted butter and sweetener as the mixer goes slowly.

Once all the butter is added and the cookie bar dough is mixed, add in the chopped pecans and the Salted Caramel chips. Stir them in until they are all incorporated.

Lastly add them to your baking dish and bake per the recipe below. Now, you are well on your way to a delicious dessert time!

After they have baked and cooled a bit you can slice them up and serve, or portion them out in plastic freezer bags and freeze for later.

The keep well for up to 1 month frozen and are easy to thaw when you need a quick treat. But they never last long enough to freeze around here.

I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe as much as I do and I’ll be back soon with another recipe to share around my table and yours!

Yield: 20 Cookie Bars

Salted Caramel Pecan Bars || Low Carb, Gluten-Free, THM

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Sweet and crisp cookie bars full of pecans and Salted Caramel Chocolate Chips. Great for your next cookie platter!

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup of THM Super Sweet ( or 2/3 cups Pyure Sweetener)
• 2 1/2 cups of superfine almond flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup of THM Pristine Whey Protein or your favorite brand
• 1 teaspoon Molasses (optional)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup of Lily's Salted Caramel Chips
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Instructions

1. In a sauce plan add the butter, sweetener, molasses, and vanilla and heat until the butter is fully melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add the almond flour, baking powder, whey protein, and eggs to a large mixing blow and mix until all combined.
3. With the mixer on low slowly drizzle in the melted butter until the cookie bar dough comes together.
4. Once mixed stir in the pecans, and the Salted Caramel Chips and stir until the ingredients are all incorporated.
5. Next spray an 11x8 baking dish with cooking spray and scoop in the cookie bar dough.
6. Press the dough evenly into the baking dish making the cookie bars the same thickness across the baking dish.
7. Bake the cookie bars at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle.
8. Let the cookie bars cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting them into 20 bars.
9. Store in an air tight container.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

1
Amount Per ServingCalories 148Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 22mgSodium 38mgCarbohydrates 6gNet Carbohydrates 2gFiber 2gSugar 2gSugar Alcohols 2gProtein 8g

I am not a nutritionist. If you have strict dietary needs I always recommend using an online nutrition calculator to calculate your totals using your exact brands you're using in this recipe as values may vary per brand.

Did you make this recipe?

Visit My Table of Three

Yield: 20 Cookie Bars

Salted Caramel Pecan Bars || Low Carb, Gluten-Free, THM

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Sweet and crisp cookie bars full of pecans and Salted Caramel Chocolate Chips. Great for your next cookie platter!

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup of THM Super Sweet ( or 2/3 cups Pyure Sweetener)
• 2 1/2 cups of superfine almond flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup of THM Pristine Whey Protein or your favorite brand
• 1 teaspoon Molasses (optional)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup of Lily's Salted Caramel Chips
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Instructions

1. In a sauce plan add the butter, sweetener, molasses, and vanilla and heat until the butter is fully melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add the almond flour, baking powder, whey protein, and eggs to a large mixing blow and mix until all combined.
3. With the mixer on low slowly drizzle in the melted butter until the cookie bar dough comes together.
4. Once mixed stir in the pecans, and the Salted Caramel Chips and stir until the ingredients are all incorporated.
5. Next spray an 11x8 baking dish with cooking spray and scoop in the cookie bar dough.
6. Press the dough evenly into the baking dish making the cookie bars the same thickness across the baking dish.
7. Bake the cookie bars at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle.
8. Let the cookie bars cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting them into 20 bars.
9. Store in an air tight container.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

1
Amount Per ServingCalories 148Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 22mgSodium 38mgCarbohydrates 6gNet Carbohydrates 2gFiber 2gSugar 2gSugar Alcohols 2gProtein 8g

I am not a nutritionist. If you have strict dietary needs I always recommend using an online nutrition calculator to calculate your totals using your exact brands you're using in this recipe as values may vary per brand.

Did you make this recipe?

Visit My Table of Three

Keri Bucci

I am a southern girl through and through that loves to laugh, cook, read and spend time with family. My passions outside of home schooling my son are ministering to those in need and creating art in the kitchen! Every day is an adventure in our little house and I wouldn’t trade it or the chance to share here with you for anything!