These chocolate pecan pie bars feature an ooey-gooey pecan filling loaded with dark chocolate morsels over a buttery shortbread crust. The perfect dessert for the holiday season!

If you’re looking for the perfect treat that’s both easy and a crowd pleaser, have I got a recipe for you! These chocolate pecan bars combine a soft shortbread crust with a perfectly set pecan pie filling. Add in the melted chocolate morsels, and you have a holiday dessert that’s fantastic for bringing to potlucks and family dinners. 

These bars are more informal-event friendly than an actual pie — you don’t need forks or plates for these guys. And the best part? These are so easy! Even if it’s your first time dabbling in pecan pies, you can make these easy chocolate pecan pie bars!

Ingredients

​These bars are easy to make, and they use simple ingredients you can find at just about any grocery store!

• Butter: Both the easy shortbread crust and the pecan pie filling use butter. While you can sub margarine in the filling, I would not recommend subbing it in the shortbread crust. It makes such a taste and texture difference!
• Flour: This recipe was tested with all-purpose flour.
• Sugar: This recipe uses granulated sugar. You can sub brown sugar or coconut sugar, if you’d like.
• Karo Syrup: Light corn syrup helps hold the filling together. You can sub dark corn syrup for this ingredient.
• Eggs: Eggs are used in the pecan pie filling to give it richness and to hold it together.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds flavor to the pie filling. You can sub this for other flavorings like almond or butter, although it will change the flavor of the finished bars. 
• Pecans: You can used chopped pecans or pecan halves in this recipe. Don’t sub this ingredient – crunchy pecans are necessary to these bars! 
• Dark Chocolate Chips: Dark chocolate chips add depth of flavor to the sweetness of the gooey filling. You can leave this out entirely, or sub them with any other type of chocolate chip, including semi-sweet, milk, or white.

Step 1 | Make the Shortbread Crust

In a mixing bowl, add your butter, sugar, and flour and mix until it starts to clump up. It won’t make a perfect cookie dough texture — since this is a press-in crust, we want it clumpy. I typically use my stand mixer on low speed to do this, but you can get the same effect with a pastry cutter or a pastry blender. 

Line a 9×9 baking dish with parchment paper. Press dough into the bottom of the prepared baking pan. I just use my fingers to press it into an even layer.

Poke the top of the crust with a fork, then bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven, and set it to the side. 

Step 2 | Make the Pecan Pie Filling

While the shortbread is baking, you can mix the filling. In a large bowl, mix eggs, remaining sugar, the Karo syrup, melted butter, vanilla extract, pecans, and dark chocolate chips. 

When the shortbread crust is finished baking, pour the filling over the top. Then, pop the bars back in the oven for 40-45 minutes. The bars are done when the filling looks “set.”

Step 3 | Enjoy!

These bars are best served at room temperature, otherwise, they have a tendency to fall apart. I recommend letting the bars cool completely before lifting them out of the pan and cutting them. These are delicious serve as-is, or with a pinch of flaky salt on top to enhance the rich flavor!

Variations:

While this recipe does not lend itself to substitutions or tons of variations, there are two options you can do that use this base recipe: 

• Traditional Pecan Pie Bars: Leave the chocolate morsels out to make classic pecan pie bars!
• Layered Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars: Instead of mixing the chocolate chips into the pie filling, you can simply sprinkle them on top. They’ll melt into a layer of chocolate. You get the same flavors, but the consistency is slightly different — it’s really up to personal preference!