The first bite of one of these white chocolate pecan cookie bars will drive you crazy…if the aroma doesn’t get you first!
I set out to re-shoot my White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies this morning but, alas, I had no macadamia nuts ~ and only one egg in the fridge! I had the baking ‘urge’ so I switched up the plan and I’m so glad I did. These white chocolate chip pecan cookie bars are amazing. So good I could barely let them cool, much less photograph them, before diving in for a bite. When I finally did get that first bar it was an eyes rolling back moment. Nice and crunchy with a sweet chewy butterscotch-y interior. And toasted pecans have never let me down yet.
white chocolate pecan cookie bar ingredients
This nice thing about this recipe is that you probably have these ingredients lying around. Swap out the chips or the nuts for your faves.
- butter
- I use unsalted butter, but if you like to bake with salted butter, just leave out the extra salt.
- brown sugar
- golden brown sugar gives these cookie bars their fabulous chewy texture.
- vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- egg
- large or x-large egg will work.
- all purpose flour
- salt and baking powder
- white chocolate chips
- I used Nestle white morsels
- toasted pecans
- I toasted pecan halves for 2 minutes on a piece of parchment paper in the microwave, on high. Then chopped them.
why we love these cookie bars
Cookie bars are like deep dish cookies, nice and thick with a crispy edges and soft insides. I sometimes wonder why I bother baking cookies any other way. And this recipe is a good jumping off point for lots of variations…take a stroll down the baking aisle and you can grab pretty much any nut or type of baking chip to mix and match.
tips for baking white chocolate pecan cookie bars
You can double this recipe for a 9×13 baking pan.
Measure you flour using the fluff/scoop and level method for accuracy. You don’t want too much flour in these bars.
Use a good quality gf baking mix to make these gluten free.
When ready to come out of the oven, the center of the pan will look slightly puffed and underdone, but that’s fine. Like brownies and blondies, you don’t want to over bake these (unless you love a super crunchy cookie bar.) The edges will be crunchy and the insides will be soft, moist, and chewy.
Don’t slice your cookie bars until ready to enjoy them so they don’t start to dry out.
The bars will freeze well. Cookie bars can be frozen just like most cookies. Just let them cool completely before double wrapping in plastic and then in foil. You can freeze the whole uncut batch, or individual squares.
if you love these white chocolate pecan bars…
My Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are awesome as well. The texture of these classic cookie bars is truly perfect (hence the name!)
Almond lovers will want to try my Almond Shortbread Bars ~ there are so many layers of almond flavor it’s insane.
At the first whiff of fall I’ll be baking up a batch of The BEST Maple Walnut Blondies.
My Strawberry Lemon Blondies are one of the most popular recipes on the site 🙂
Fabulously Fudgy One Bowl Brownies are for when you just crave a classic brownie.
Triple Lemon Brownies prove that brownies don’t have to be chocolate!
Whenever I get my hands on great berries I make Blackberry Pecan Bars or Raspberry Almond Bars, for sure.
White Chocolate Pecan Cookie Bars
Equipment
- 9×9 baking dish
- parchment paper (optional)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup golden brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 1/2 tsp coarse salt
- 1 egg (large or extra large) at room temperature if possible
- 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup (heaped) white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Butter a 9×9 baking pan and line with parchment (parchment is optional, but helps to remove bars for even slicing.)
- Cream butter and sugar with the vanilla paste and salt until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. I use my stand mixer but you can use electric beaters if you prefer.
- Beat in the room temperature egg and scrape down bowl again to get everything evenly combined.
- Whisk the flour and baking powder together and slowly add to the bowl with the mixer on low.
- Add the chips and nuts (mixer still on low) and mix just until distributed. Do a final stir with a large silicone spoonula just to make sure everything is up from the bottom of the bowl, etc.
- Turn the batter into your prepared pan and pat out evenly. It helps to flour your fingers for this job. I take the time to smooth the surface with an offset spatula because this will bake up prettier than a rough surface.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. The bars will just be starting to turn golden around the edges and the center will be slightly puffed. Note: ovens vary greatly, so check them at 30 minutes.
- Let the pan cool for about 15 minutes and then, if you've used parchment paper, you can lift the bars out to a cooling rack.
- These cookie bars can be sliced while still warm, or you can wait for them to cool. I slice them into 16 squares.
Notes
Nutrition
I decided to make these into cookies but wasn’t sure how they’d come out…wow! They’re amazing! I wasn’t sure about the bake time so I started with 11 minutes and checked every 3 minutes. Total time was about 14 minutes. They were crispy outside and chewy inside! I was told these are the best I’ve ever made and I bake a lot!
This recipe came out so delicious and used up those white chocolate chips and pecans I needed to get rid of. Very most in the middle with the outer crunch. The flavor really hit the spot!
So glad you loved these Michele, they’re one of my personal favorites.