If the Amaretto Pumpkin Pie Bars didn’t tip you off, this should tell you that I’ve got a bit of a thing for American seasonal desserts at the moment. This recipe is one of the first desserts I ever cooked from scratch, 3 years ago in my student kitchen which, inexplicably, was bigger than my current one is! For some insane reason I haven’t actually made it since then so I reckoned it was high time I shared it with you.

Once again, I’ve gone for bars rather than an actual pie and with that comes a few challenges. So, I’ll share with you the mistake that I am most certainly far too intelligent to have made… Ahem.

Let’s start by stating the obvious: liquid fillings are runny. And therefore if you try to pour them into a loose based tin they will drip everywhere and you will end up with syrup all over your floor, oven, trousers… Definitely didn’t happen to me. And I definitely did not throw a hissy fit. Nope.

Secondly, even though we’re making bars, you can’t just put pastry in the bottom of your tin, or the filling will run underneath (and if you’re using a loose based tin the above will happen…). So, shape the pastry into a pie crust (albeit a square one) to hold the filling.

And if you follow the sensible suggestions above (which I’m sure you would have done anyway!) you’ll end up with beautiful nutella pecan pie bars and zero mess*.

*I make no guarantees

Nutella Pecan Pie Bars

Yield: 12 bars

Ingredients

• 250g shortcrust pastry
• 200g nutella
• 85g butter
• 175ml golden syrup
• 150g dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 medium eggs
• 200g pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Roll out pastry and line a greased 9" square tin with it, making sure to cover the sides with pastry. Blind bake for 10 minutes then leave to cool. Spread the nutella over the pastry base.
2. In a saucepan, add the butter, syrup, sugar and vanilla extract until melted and allow to cool.
3. Beat the eggs and add to the syrup mixture, stirring continuously. Add the pecans and pour into the cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes.

3.1

https://www.adashofginger.co.uk/2014/11/nutella-pecan-pie-bars.html