Summary:
These keto pecan bars have a sweet and crunchy pecan topping over a crisp almond crust. Low carb and gluten free, this is a fantastic easy dessert to make for nut lovers or for holidays (see Thanksgiving Recipes).
Keto Pecan Bars Recipe
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 40 mins
Cool: 7 hrs
Yield: 16 pecan bars
Calories: 170
Net Carbs: 0.5g
INGREDIENTS
Crust:
- 1 cup
blanched almond flour (113 g or 4 oz weight) - 4 tbsp salted butter (57 g or 2 oz weight), melted (I usually cut in small pieces and microwave until melted)
- 3 tbsp
confectioners swerve sweetener (28 g or 1 oz weight) (for more info, see below section called "Recipe Tips") - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping:
- 1.5 cups pecan pieces (170 g or 6 oz weight) (not halves; pieces are 1/4 to 1 inch in length, often found in the baking aisle of grocery stores, not in the snack or ready-to-eat nuts section)
- 1/2 cup
loosely packed confectioners swerve sweetener (71 g or 2.5 oz weight) - 5 tbsp salted butter (71 g or 2.5 oz weight), sliced into about 8 pieces
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Toasting Pecans:
- Don’t skip this step; toasting the pecans separately is important because it will bring out a lot of nutty flavor.
- Position an oven rack in the lower half of the oven, and preheat to 350 F.
- Spread out pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet (I use a 17×12-inch sheet), no oil or parchment paper needed.
- Bake at 350 F for 4 minutes, stir the pecans and spread out again in a single layer, and then bake again until fragrant and toasted, about another 4 minutes.
- Set aside the pan to let the pecans cool. Leave the oven on.
Making The Crust:
Line a 8×8 inch baking dish (I use a glass dish) with foil. Set aside. - In a mixing bowl, add melted butter, swerve, and vanilla. Stir together until well-mixed. Add almond flour, stirring it in until incorporated. It should be dough-like and it’s fine if it’s crumbly.
- Transfer the dough to the foil-lined baking dish, spreading it out. Use the back of a solid turner spatula to press down to form a very thin crust. Initially, it will look like there isn’t enough to cover the bottom, but keep flattening and spreading until it covers the entire bottom of the dish. Set aside.
Making The Topping:
- In a saucepan (use stainless steel instead of nonstick so you can easily see when the butter browns; I use a 1.5 quart 7-inch pan), add the butter over medium heat. Stir it around until melted, about a minute.
- When the butter starts simmering, stir nearly constantly to avoid burning. Within a few minutes, it should stop sizzling and quickly develop a caramel color with brown flecks at the bottom, underneath the foam. Immediately reduce to medium-low heat and add swerve. Stir together for a minute until the sweetener is dissolved.
- Turn off the heat. Stir in vanilla extract. Add toasted pecans, stirring until they’re well coated.
- Transfer this pecan mixture to the prepared almond crust, spreading it out evenly so that no crust is visible. Lightly press down with the back of a solid turner spatula to flatten the mixture against the crust, forming an even surface.
Baking and Cooling:
- Bake at 350 F for 20 to 25 minutes; the pecan bars should be sizzling a bit and darkened on top when you take them out of the oven.
- Cool at room temperature (without removing the pecan bars from the baking dish because they are too soft), about 1 hour. A wire rack is great for this. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 6 hours.
- After chilling, lift up the foil to transfer the pecan bars from the baking dish onto the countertop. Use a sturdy knife to cut into 16 bars (it’s fine if they crumble a bit), and serve chilled. Store leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator.
NUTRITION
| Makes 16 Servings |
| Amount Per Serving (1 bar): |
| Calories 170 | |
| Total Fat 18g | 27% |
| Saturated Fat 5g | 24% |
| Cholesterol 17mg | 6% |
| Sodium 50mg | 2% |
| Net Carb 0.5g | |
| Total Carb 2.5g | 1% |
| Dietary Fiber 2g | 7% |
| Sugars 0.5g | |
| Protein 3g |
Recipe Overview
To keep the recipe as simple as possible, there are only 2 layers to make: crust and topping. The layers share multiple common ingredients and only 5 unique ingredients are required for this recipe.
To bring out an ultra nutty flavor, the pecans are given the full treatment: they’re separately toasted on a baking sheet and then soaked in sweetened browned buter. This constitutes the topping, which is spread over the almond flour crust.
Designed to be a keto friendly dessert, each pecan bar is only 0.5g net carbs and doesn’t contain traditional pecan bar ingredients like corn syrup or honey. Note that net carbs do not include fiber or sugar alcohols (like the erythritol in swerve) since they are non-impact.
Toasting pecan pieces on a baking sheet. 
Forming a smooth almond flour crust.
Recipe Tips
- The recipe provides measurements in both weight (ounces and grams) and volume (cups or tablespoons). If you have a digital food scale, I highly recommend using the weight values because volume measurements for flours and sweeteners can vary substantially depending how they’re packed into the measuring cup.
- When making the topping, the recipe moves quickly, so having all of your topping ingredients measured and ready to go before starting is important.
- Almond flour cannot be substituted with coconut flour since the latter is much more absorbent and not a simple 1:1 substitution.
- Available in both confectioners and granular form, I use swerve confectioners which has a powdered consistency. This is an erythritol blend sweetener that measures the same as sugar. It cannot be equally substituted with pure erythritol, which is only about 70% as sweet as sugar.
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Wonderful recipe Julia. I’ve made this three times within a month already, adding small variations each time. My household loves it. Thanks for keeping it down to 5 ingredients. The variations are endless!
The latest mods which turned out great was adding an egg to the crust, sub coconut oil for butter (in the crust only) and it was less crumbly. Flavor wise, adding salt to the crust and cinnamon to the topping….Sooooo good!
Thanks again 😋❤️
Can I use stevia for the sweetener?
I love these bars. However, my crust is very crumbly. What am I doing wrong? I’ve made them several times.
You can try adding a little extra butter — maybe a tablespoon or so — to see if that fixes your crumbly crust. Hope that helps!
I added 1 egg to the crust and my crust was sooo much better and tasted much better and manageable
Would an egg yolk tempered, make the pecan portion a little more gooey like a pecan pie?
That sounds like a great idea, and I’ll try that next time I remake these bars. If you give it a try, please let me know how it turns out for you.
My husband was just diagnosed as a diabetic. He is on a low carb healthy fats diet and so far has been able to avoid resorting to medication. Curious about the sweetener used in this. I have never heard of swerve? Would that be compliant on this sort of thing. Or another artificial sweetener that you could recommend?
Many people on a low carb or keto diet use erythritol or erythritol-based sweeteners. Swerve is one of many brands that use erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol that is considered non-impact in terms of blood sugar and insulin. I like Swerve because it measures the same as sugar and can be easily found online or in large supermarkets like Kroger if you’re in the US.
Hello Julia! I realize I’m late to this pecan-bar party… but I am so excited to try this! The only sweetener my husband can tolerate is monk fruit (not mixed with erythritol). Do you think I can use the Lakanto monk fruit extract? The volume would be significantly less than their granulated monk fruit/erythritol product. Not sure if that will make it too runny? THANK YOU for this wonderful site/community!
I think it will be a bit runny, but you can replace the 1/2 cup of dry sweetener with almond flour, ground flaxseed meal, finely ground pecans, or protein powder (or a mix of them). Anything that’s fine and dry would likely work, as long as its flavor isn’t overpowering. Hope that helps 🙂
Can this recipe be doubled and made in a 9×13” pan/dish?
I haven’t tried making this in a 9×13 pan, but that should be fine.
I can’t wait to try…. gonna make them tonight so I know I have a “good” option for T-Day desert
Is there another flour that I can use? My mother is allergic to almonds (not too seriously, though).
Yes, I made them, so delicious!
If gluten is not the problem and I want to eat lower sugar, can these be made with regular flour?
Almond flour and regular all-purpose wheat flour are usually not 1:1 interchangeable, so I would advise against making a direct substitution. I would look up regular pecan bars, not low carb ones, and use their recipe for the crust portion.
Just wondering if anyone has drizzled some melted Lily’s chocolate on top??!
Can I freeze these?
I haven’t tried, but I think these pecan bars would freeze well. After cutting them into bars, transfer them to a zip-top bag and freeze. Should last up to a few months.
I’m making this for the second time right now. This is by far the best keto pecan bar I have ever tasted. It really tastes like a regular pecan bar! I used the 100% erythritol but it turned out so good. I did increase the sweetener amount in the crust to 4.5tbsp but didn’t increase for the filling. Even so, it turned out so good! Thank you so much for the great recipe.
this is what i will make every time i’m craving pecan pie. it’s perfect with coffee and my non-low-carb parents love it as well. thanks for a great recipe; it’s a keeper!
Do you think I could use coconut oil instead of butter? I need to make some dairy free desserts for someone with allergies to gluten and dairy.
I’m leaning towards no. Using coconut oil is fine for the crust, but the topping relies on the browned butter to provide a lot of the flavor and richness. You could try it, but I don’t think it’ll be anywhere near as good.
I’ve tried with coconut oil. The “browned butter” effect can actually be achieved if you add a touch of coconut butter/manna (I did a 1 to 4 ish ratio coconut butter to oil). It browns up very similarly!
The problem is that when coconut oil solidifies, it becomes hard. So the topping becomes candy-like when the bar is straight out of the fridge. Butter or a similar melty oil is best for the topping, but coconut oil’s solidifying ability makes it excellent as a crust. It holds the bar together really well!
My family loved these also! They said it tasted just like a pecan pie. I however, liked them best warmed up. These were wonderful!
Hi Danielle~ just wondering if they fell apart when you warmed them? Not that I would mind, myself =) but am curious if I might be looking at an ice cream topping at that point? Thanks, in advance~ Samantha in NM
Delicious! I did have an issue with the crust being too moist? Measured everything on my scale, will add extra almond flour if necessary next time. There will definitely be a next time.
Do they have to be refrigerated? I would prefer them at room temp.
They hold together better when refrigerated, and are easier to cut into neat shapes.
I did make these twice. My oven must run hotter than Julia’s as the first time I made them they were a little more done, almost burned, but still tasted good! I followed her directions to the letter so I’m sure it was difference in oven. Made them again last night instead of toasting the pecans 4 mins then 4 more, I did 4 minutes stir and then 2 more mins. Putting the finished product in the 350 oven recipe says 20-25 minutes, I cut that down to 15 minutes. They came out perfect! Yummy! They are so good!
Just a side note I really like using the weight measuring method instead of volume. 🙂
Thanks for your comment, particularly about the temp. My pecans are a little overdone at 8 minutes, but I think it’s probably my oven. Gonna be careful with the baking time.
Same here ladies~ and I think altitude plays a part as well. I am at 4,500 ft. and have had to adjust even more than usual with low carb cooking- not that I mind a bit- just that I remember to BE mindful of this factor! =) Samantha in NM
I haven’t made this yet but I’m going to as soon as I get this question answered. Julia, in the ingredients list it says for the crust 4 oz (113grams) 1 cup of almond flour. Am I reading it wrong? 4 oz is only 1/2 cup. Do I use 4 oz or 1 cup of almond flour? Thanks, I love your site!
Hi Sue! The oz refers to weight, not volume like fluid ounce. So in this case, 113 grams = 4 ounces weight, which corresponds to 1 cup in volume for almond flour specifically. Hope that makes sense — I will update the recipe to see if I can make this more clear.
Thanks so much! I kinda figured it out AFTER I wrote the question. duh!
I do have another question about these pecan bars. Do you think I could use a pie plate and pretend it’s a pie?? lol. Have to take a pie to a church gathering….gotta take something I can eat, right?
That’s a great idea! After refrigerating it overnight to chill, the “pie” will be relatively hard and you might have to exert some force to cut them neatly into pie slices. They might crumble a bit. But besides that, I think it’ll work nicely as a pie 🙂
These are absolutely GREAT!!!
Thanks so much for the recipe. I did add a small amount of toasted cocoanut.
Love this pecan bars… only one thing… I entered this recipe in Carb Manager, and it’s saying there is 7.5 grams of carbs?? Why?
Are you including Swerve? Swerve and other erythritol blends are non-impact, meaning their carbs are sugar alcohols that should be subtracted when calculating net carbs.
I don’t mean to belittle any of these applications but I have found they do not calculate carbs correctly. You might want to run that thru another app just to double check.