Gooey Pecan Bars

Get out your cup of coffee because these gooey pecan bars are rich–and a great option for feeding a lot of people when you want to dope them up on sugar and make them go home early for a nap. Then again, they’re so good they may stay for more. Make these at your own risk.

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I’ve made this batch for my 1,000th potluck this year. Truthfully, we have at LEAST 4 every month. That makes me an expert on feeding 100 people or more on a regular basis without going nuts. And now you get to learn. What’s the secret?

You make SIMPLE stuff. Have I said that enough yet?

These gooey pecan bars are a no brainer thanks to a boxed cake mix.

Yes.

Just add an egg and some butter to the mix (DON’T follow the box directions!) and that’s your crust. Make a sweet cream cheese topping and bake it up  to gooey sweet goodness. You know what makes this even better? You could follow this basic plan to make a ton of other variations. Like lemon cake with almonds, or chocolate cake with walnuts, or no nuts at all if you hate them and/or your face or airway swells shut when you eat them.

My husband thinks nuts ruin every baked good ever created.

He has issues, obviously.

I won’t make any apologies for the amount of fat in this recipe–after all, it’s designed to feed an entire little league baseball team or your whole office so don’t sweat it. You probably won’t even be able to get a bite.

Gooey Pecan Bars

Feed a crowd and bring in the flavors of pecan pie easily with these gooey pecan bars. Someone get the coffee!

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 12

Author Rachel Ballard

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Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 box spice or butter pecan cake mix
• 1 egg
• 2 cup sticks unsalted butter melted and divided into a 1/2 each
• 1 8 ounce package cream cheese softened
• 16 ounces powdered sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans or nut of your choice

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350.
• Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan.
• In a medium bowl mix the cake mix, one egg and 1/2 cup of melted butter (that's one stick melted).
• Stir to combine, it will be thick.
• Using wet fingertips, spread the cake mix evenly over the bottom of the pan. You may have to wet your fingers several times to get it in there evenly.
• In a small bowl mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, 2 eggs and remaining 1/2 cup melted butter with a hand mixer until smooth.
• Stir in the pecans.
• Spread over the cake mix.
• Bake 45-50 minutes, tenting your pan lightly with foil after about 35 minutes. The top will brown slightly.
• Allow to cool completely in the pan before cutting slices.

Nutrition

Calories: 769kcal

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American