Getting healthy for the New Year doesn’t have to mean skipping dessert. Try these sugar free Keto Pecan Toffee Bars. You won’t regret it, I promise! Now with an instructional video.
One of my favorite keto holiday treats now has its own How To Video! Check out how easy it is to make these sugar free Pecan Toffee Bars.
There are two ways of looking at this New Year thing. Depending on your perspective, you might be saying:
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Woot woot, welcome to 2016!!!
Or, if this change of calendar year has snuck up on you, you’re all:
OH CRAP, IT’S ALREADY 2016, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!???!”
Where do you fall on that spectrum? I think I am somewhere in the middle. It’s astonishing how quickly time moves as you get older and no matter how aware I am that a new year is coming, I always feel a little caught off guard.
But at the same time, I always feel the excitement that a new year and a new start brings. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions anymore, as I know full well that life might throw me a curve ball and those grand plans will fall to the wayside. I have no interest in feeling guilty for not living up to my own grandiose expectations.
But I do have ideas and plans and dreams and I get pretty excited about getting after it in the year to come. Whether or not I can bring them all to fruition remains to be seen.
Proof that I am constantly surprised at the rapid passing of time are these low carb Pecan Toffee Bars. I developed this recipe well before the holidays with every intention of getting it up before Christmas. That didn’t happen, obviously.
But in the end, I am rather glad about that. I sensed a little “holiday sweets” ennui from my readers and I decided to hold these back for a bit. I would have hated to see them get lost in the shuffle of holiday cookie recipes. They are much too tasty to be overlooked! And besides, any time is a good time for pecans and toffee. Right? Right? Am I right?
Tips for Pecan Toffee Bars
The almond flour shortbread crust on these bars is simply divine. It’s crisp to bite into but also melt in your mouth delicious, as all good shortbread should be. Be sure to pre-bake it and let it cool before adding the topping. That process is part of what helps it crisp up so nicely.
The toffee is made with Swerve Sweetener, an erythritol based sweetener. Let’s be honest, low carb sweeteners do not behave exactly as sugar does. So while Swerve does caramelize, it takes a little coaxing. You need to make sure you boil the toffee mixture enough. Do not panic if it smokes a bit, as this is normal when caramelizing erythritol based sweeteners.
Be sure to stand near that pan while it caramelizes as it can over cook and burn, just like a sugar based toffee. Watch it carefully and when it deepens to amber, remove it from heat immediately.
When you add the vanilla, it will bubble vigorously. This is also normal for any toffee recipe.
Don’t pre-toast the pecans, as they will get plenty toasted during baking. I used pecan halves but you can use chopped pecans as well, as long as they are raw and unsalted. I’ve made these several times and I actually find that some chopped pecans makes the bars easier to cut in the end.
Let the bars cool completely before cutting, and use a very sharp large knife. Because of the hardness of the toffee, these can shatter a bit when cutting. A very good chef’s knife helps. Also be sure to cut straight up and down, without sawing.
These delicious keto Pecan Toffee Bars make a fabulous gift for anyone. If you can pry them from your own fingers!
More Fabulous Keto Pecan Recipes
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Keto Pecan Toffee Bars
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust:
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter chilled and cut into small pieces
Topping:
- ¾ cup granulated Swerve Sweetener
- ½ cup butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 2 ½ cups pecans (some chopped, some whole)
Instructions
Shortbread Crust:
- Preheat oven to 325F and line an 9x9 or 8x8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang for easy removal.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine almond flour, powdered sweetener, and salt. Pulse to combine. Sprinkle with butter pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Alternatively, you can cut in butter with a pastry cutter.
- Press into bottom of prepared baking pan. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until just beginning to brown on the edges. Remove and let cool while preparing topping.
Topping:
- In a medium heavy-duty saucepan over medium heat, combine Swerve and butter and stir until Swerve is dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until mixture darkens to amber, about 5 to 7 minutes (time may vary depending on the quality of your cookware).
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract and salt. If the mixture appears to be separating, stir in 2 tablespoon of powdered Swerve Sweetener until it comes back together.
- Sprinkle crust evenly with pecans. Pour toffee mixture evenly overtop. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until topping has darkened and bubbles thickly. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.
Jenny says
I’ve made these twice and the flavor is spot on!!! Both times though lots/most of the pecans didn’t stick. I did think the crust was pretty crumbly both times, not sure what I did wrong. I have an 8×8 pan, The second time it didn’t seem like the bars “set” well and the only way to serve them was refrigerated so they didn’t have to be eaten with a fork because they fell apart.
I’m going to keep trying for the right consistency—the flavor is just superb!!! Thank you!!!
Carolyn says
So you’re not the only one with this problem and something just twigged. I always used a 9×9 pan for this. I suspect the smaller pan, which makes the bars deeper, may be part of the issue. The crust doesn’t get baked quite enough, and the pecans on top are deeper so that the toffee can’t make them all stick. I may experiment here…
Aimee Garcia says
How can you keep the caramel from crystallizing as it vools? Have you tried making this recipe with your caramel sauce made with bocha sweet? Would this keep it gooey?
Carolyn says
This is not supposed to be gooey. Toffee is hard and crunchy. If you want a gooey filling, please check out my pecan pie bars.
Tara says
The final step… do you bake it at the same temp you bake the crust? Mine are looking pretty good, except they are not bubbling up. Wondering if the oven should be hotter. It smells fantastic in here though, can’t wait to eat them!
Carolyn says
Yes, same temp. Don’t worry, I think they will turn out.
Cathy mills says
Apparently the 3 cups of pecans is a typo I made these in a 8×8 pan and it has 2” of pecans on the top and the toffee did not even hold them together and I’m a baker
Carolyn says
No, not a typo. You can see from the many positive comments that this recipe works as written. If you’re having trouble, try chopping them some if you need to.
Carolyn says
Oh and I am a baker too. 🙂
Andre says
Can you include a temperature the caramel mix should be when it’s done on the stove top?
Carolyn says
Sorry but I did not make them that way. it shouldn’t be necessary if you let it become a deep golden amber.
Edith says
A recent Keto convert, I happened upon All Day I Dream About Food through Pinterest. Made these bars twice now.
Love. Love. Love. Can’t wait to try more!
Thank you, Carolyn.
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it!
Jena says
Hi there!
What is the fat content per serving? I saw everything else listed, but no grams of fat per serving, which is pretty important for a high fat way of eating. I think I’ll be trying this recipe for the holidays, because it looks and sounds delicious! Thank you!
Carolyn says
Sorry, that must have been left out when I switched recipe cards. It’s 26.4g and I am off to fix it!
Rachel says
Meh. This is one of the few recipes from All Day I Dream About Food that just didn’t live up to my expectation. I followed this recipe to a t. When it was done, it didn’t look right. There were extra pecans that were loose. I used a mix of whole pecans and chopped. It seems as though there wasn’t enough wet ingredients to make the topping stick. The flavor of the top was weirdly coolingly sweet. I’m blaming the swerve confectioners sugar for that. This was my first time using this sweetener. Wasn’t the best taste. I’ve definitely made much better recipes by you, Carolyn. This one sadly is not a keeper at my house.
Vera says
Thank you, thanks, gracias, ????, and in every other language, THANK YOU. These are amazing!!!
Layla says
Made these. They satisfied our sweet tooth and had nice flavor. But there’s no stick with the toffee topping and I missed that stickiness. So I added some sugar free maple syrup on top some of them, then left them out to let the syrup harden a bit. It fixed the texture and stick and gave it a nice maple flavor, but ended up way too sweet. So, I’ll probably play with it a little. I thought about adding some heavy cream or coconut cream to the toffee mixture to make it into a carmel, but I am not familiar enough with browned swerve to know how much of a disaster that would be. Overall, they were good. But I’m not sure I’d make them again. I might just do the crust, put the pecans on top and pour sugar free syrup on them and see what happens after 15 minutes in the oven.
Carolyn says
These aren’t supposed to be soft. They are meant to be hard and crunchy, like toffee is. If you want a soft pecan bar, you need these: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/chocolate-pecan-pie-bars-and-a-thanksgiving-potluck-for-feeding-america/
Kari Goolsby says
Hi Carolyn,
Would Swerve brown/bocca sweet be anything to substitute or too soft for the toffee to harden? I’m making these today and so excited
Carolyn says
Swerve Brown would be fine and would harden. Bocha Sweet might be too soft.
Faith says
Oh dear, something went terrible wrong and I’m left trying to figure out how to fix or re-invent something to do with this super-expensive yet inedible ingredients. I followed this recipe exactly except to use the Swerve granular in the crust instead of confectioners since I could not afford 2 bags of this sweetener. Everything else was the same-and used Bob’s R.M. almond flour. When they cooled, the topping was nearly whitish but not crunchy like I expected, but the whole thing was very grainy, greasy, and bitter/sickeningly sweet. Could it be that I didn’t cook the mixture enough or bake them long enough? Ugh-I wanted to cry. I don’t know what happened.
Carolyn says
I’m so sorry. If it what whitish and not crunchy, I do suspect you didn’t cook it long enough in the first stage. You can see in my video, I take it to the point that it’s quite dark amber. Also make sure you are using a good pan… cheap aluminum pans don’t caramelize things properly.
Faith says
I have Calphalon Tri-ply stainless cookware, so I don’t think that was the issue. I wanted to tell you what I ended up doing with the bars. I chopped them up and tossed them in the food processor. Then, I smashed the crumb mixture (nothing else added) into the bottom and half-way up the sides of a springform pan and made them into the crust for a cheesecake. They made a FABULOUS butter-pecan tasting cheesecake crust, (2 cheesecakes worth) and now I’m sad that I don’t have any more left! It would be worth making these again just for another cheesecake crust! lol!
Carol Ann says
I would like to add a layer of dark chocolate between the crust and topping. What would you suggest I use. I don’t want to use anything that contains sugar.
Carolyn says
Lily’s would be perfect! https://amzn.to/2C6YRRo
Karen says
Hi Carolyn,
I’ve added these to my Christmas baking line up. I’m struggling to figure out how far ahead I can make these as well as other keto Christmas cookies.can you give any good guidelines on how to know what to freeze, how to store, how far ahead keto baked goods can be made?
These are so delicious, by the way! Thank you always!
Carolyn says
Read this, it should help. And yes these can be frozen. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/make-ahead-low-carb-holiday-cookies/
Brittany says
I’m following the keto diet and can not wait until I can make these! These look absolutely DELICIOUS! Thanks for the post!
Holly says
Dang. I saw this recipe and it stuck to my brain like the toffee that’s in them. Now I have to make them. You are evil, evil I say! But I love you anyway.
Carolyn says
LOL Thanks!
Shimara says
In Germany you can find plain erythritol for a good price at DM
I made this yesterday and liked the crust and the taste of the toffee was great………but way….way too sweet. Would it also work if I put less Swerve in the toffee topping?
Catherine says
Hi, Carolyn,
I just made this but I think I goofed on the topping. It did not thicken like yours did. I kept waiting for it to turn amber and it never did even after 12-13 minutes. I used monk fruit. Should that have made that kind of difference? It still tastes delicious, but the presentation is not as beautiful as yours. Any advice for me?
Carolyn says
Yep, monk fruit doesn’t caramelize like Swerve does. Sorry!
Catherine Ashmead says
Alrighty! Then this weekend is Pecan Toffee Bars, TAKE 2! Thank you! (These were delicious regardless of my oops!)
Sandy V says
I just made this recipe, it turned out perfect! My non-keto husband told me it’s his new favorite. Thank you so much for all the wonderful recipes that make keto so easy.
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it.
Brooke Silberhorn says
Hi Carolyn! I love so many of your recipes! I made this one last night and found that the toffee soaked into the crust (leaving the pecans only lightly coated and very loose on top). I’m wondering if I should have baked the crust a bit longer and let it completely cool before doing the rest of the steps. I may so I use a different pan. The crust seemed loose in the corners because of the bulk of the parchment. Do you have any suggestions? Otherwise they taste great!
Carolyn says
So two possible things, if the corners were loose after baking… the butter wasn’t evenly enough distributed so make sure you process until it resembles crumbs. Also possible the almond flour was mis-measured a bit (1 cup = about 100g if you’d prefer to be more exact by weight). Do make sure the crust is properly cooled before adding the topping.