Easy Butter Pecan Bark ~ a pecan studded butterscotch bark that knocks the socks off everybody who tries it. This is for all you butterscotch fans out there ~ it’s proof positive that chocolate isn’t the only game in town when it comes to delicious homemade candy. For just 2 ingredients and a few minutes of your time, you owe it to yourself to see what all the fuss is about!
Bark is a simple homemade candy that’s going to save your life during the upcoming holidays. As long as you’ve got a bit of chocolate and some nuts (or dried fruit) in the kitchen you’ll have the makings for a last minute treat or gift. Master this easy technique and you’ll master the holidays, it’s that simple.
This one is made with just 2 ingredients: butterscotch morsels and fresh pecans. It makes a wonderfully unexpected treat to give away, or to hoard all for yourself.
I love those recipes where the ingredients by themselves hardly seem like much, but when you put them together in just the right way, become sublime. Who’d a thought a bag of butterscotch morsels and some pecans could make something so outrageously irresistible?
After I finished this photo shoot I asked my husband Grant if he wanted me to save any for him. We’re having a little issue lately where if I keep blog sweets around the house and certain people over-indulge, they get upset, but when I dispose of or give away said treats, that can be a problem, too. Husbands can be a trial sometimes. Anyway, he came over to the table and chose a little shard to test. After he ate that he reached for another, and finally one more little piece. He took a deep breath and said “Let me go weigh myself”. No joke. So he did, and after a minute called in from the other room that I should get rid of them. I packed it all up to take to my sister’s house. Sheesh.
This one you just have to make, that’s all there is to it. Everybody needs a quick and easy candy recipe like this in their arsenal, especially this time of year.
It’s really convenient to have a couple of silicone baking mats in the kitchen for projects like this butter pecan bark. When they first came out, the number one brand was great, but pretty expensive. Now there are lots of competitors, and prices have dropped. I recommend getting a few if you love to bake. If you don’t cut on them, and don’t put them in the dishwasher, they’ll last a long time.
Butter pecan has to be one of the world’s best flavor combos, am I right? Here are a few other ways to get it into your belly…
- Butter Pecan Shortbread
- Butter Pecan Pancakes
- Low Carb Butter Pecan Ice Cream Pie
- Butter Pecan Latte
Easy Butter Pecan Bark
Ingredients
- 11 ounces butterscotch morsels, I used Nestle
- 1 cup rough chopped pecans
- 1 tsp coconut oil, optional, it can help with the melting
Instructions
- Put the morsels (and coconut oil, if using) in a glass microwave salfe bowl and microwave for one minute on high. Let sit for a minute, then stir.
- Put the bowl back in the microwave for 15 second bursts, stirring in between to melt the morsels. Don't over heat, it usually takes me a total of 1 1/2 minutes. Let the ambient heat in the bowl do the final melting, while you stir. I like to use a silicone 'spoonula'.
- When the butterscotch is smooth, stir in the pecans.
- Spread out onto a silicone lined baking sheet to a rectangle approximately 7 by 11. Try to spread it out thinly and evenly. There's no need to rush this step, the mixture will remain pliable. Make sure you can't see the mat through any spots.
- Put the tray in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the bark can harden.
- Carefully remove the bark from the mat, and use a large knife to cut the bark into pieces. Some of it will shatter a bit, that's to be expected.
Nutrition
Make it your own ~
- White chocolate would work here, but you won’t get quite as much ‘butter pecan‘ flavor.
- If you don’t love pecans, you could try walnuts, or hazelnuts.
- Have you ever worked with blonde chocolate? Blonde chocolate is white chocolate that’s basically been caramelized, and it would be delicious with pecans. I show you how you can make it yourself in my BLONDE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA BARK recipe.
This looks really good! I am more of a caramel/butterscotch girl than chocolate! However, I don’t find much flavour in the butterscotch morsels. I think they taste too imitation to me. But, I bought a new flavour called “salted caramel” morsels, and they are to die for! I think this might be really good with those. Thanks for this recipe Sue!
I know what you mean about the imitation flavor, Colleen, and I found that the nuts disguised that quite a bit. But I’m going to look out for the new flavor, I haven’t seen it. They sound like they’d be PERFECT 🙂
I love having treats like this around. So easy to grab for a little sweet treat 🙂 Butter pecan sounds perfect to me and “easy” is even better!
I’ve been doing this with cashews for some time and people love it! Sometimes I offer it with Frango mint fudge with pecans for a great contrast.
I love the idea of using cashews, Curtis, you don’t see them in candy very often, I have to try that 🙂
I’m loving this bark Sue! And how easy it is. Perfect to give as little hostess gifts for fall parties!
That’s so true Mary Ann, bark holds up really well for gifting. I’d love to have a dinner party and serve a whole assortment of barks for dessert, it would be so pretty!
I do love butterscotch candies but not the morsels. I wonder if I put a dash of some kind of liquor in the butterscotch , would it give it that little extra bite? What do you think?
You should be able to do that, Joyce, and it’s a great idea. I’d add the liqueur to the morsels at the beginning, before melting. And don’t add too much or the bark won’t harden properly. Please report back with your results!
This looks AH-MAZING!!! I need to figure out how to do a low carb version.
You can do it, Carolyn, I know you can!
Good stuff — I’d be barking mad to turn this down. 🙂 Good flavors in this — thanks.
hehe.
We love butterscotch here too – what a great gift for the holidays. I bet everyone loves this and so easy too – or at least you make it look easy. Yum!
Looking at all your barks, I’m thinking you are definitely the “bark queen” Sue! This one sounds wonderful as I am a huge butterscotch lover. Pecans make it even more heavenly!
You have some amazing bark recipes. This looks irresistible!