Butterscotch Bars with Pecans

If you’re ever in need of a very simple and very addictive bar cookie, these Butterscotch Bars with Pecans might just be for you. These bars have just a few ingredients, but really capture a great butterscotch flavor with a lot of brown sugar and just a bit of butter.

The bars are very thin and sweet enough to be candy-like on their own because of all the brown sugar needed for that delicious butterscotch taste. Fortunately, you shouldn’t have a problem with the finished bars being too sweet because a generous amount of pecans are included in the recipe to contrast with the sweet cookie dough. As always, I used (and generally recommend, unless specifically stated otherwise!) roasted and salted pecans in the bars. Roasting the nuts gives them a nice crisp texture and the hint of salt contrasts perfectly with the butterscotch.

The bars are a bit chewy, so if you like yours to be a bit more crisp, then bake them for an extra five minutes so they take on a darker golden color. If pecans aren’t your favorite nuts, walnuts will work just as well in these. I haven’t tried almonds or hazelnuts, but imagine that either would also turn out quite well in a batch of butterscotch bars.

Butterscotch Bars with Pecans
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup roasted and salted pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8×8-inch square pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together, stirring until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract, followed by the flour mixture. Stir in pecans. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, until bars are golden brown and have started to pull away from the edges of the pan slightly.
Let bars cool in pan before slicing.

Makes 24 small bars.