Foodie Friday: Salted Chocolate and Pecan Cake Bars

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These delicious cake bars are the ultimate dessert if you’re craving something sweet and salty!

These originally appeared on this site back in 2010, but desperately need a facelift! I know I’m a little late on the whole “salted sweets” craze, but better late than never, right? I’ve been reading blog after blog about salty cupcakes, cookies and cakes and decided it was time to give them a whirl in my own cucina. I found an AMAZING recipe for salted chocolate chip bars from Jessica of How Sweet It Is and decided to whip up a tasty batch for dessert last night. Because I only had one bag of chocolate chips [I realize I just made a very offensive statement to some of you, I hope you’ll still like me] I omitted the chocolate glaze for powder sugar.

I ate, like, 6 of these last night. Plus licked the batter. It’s no big deal though, not like I’m getting married in 3 weeks! But these were just THAT good. What I didn’t realize though was that all of the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom while baking. Normally this would have been a disaster but they formed such a tasty and gooey crust on the bottom. So in each bite, you get chocolate, nutty-ness from the pecans, moist vanilla cake and salt!

This is the love child of vanilla cake, chocolate chip cookies and salty pecans. Three amazing snacks in themselves become the world’s best dessert once combined. It sufficiently blew my mind. So now, I’ll let it blow yours! Oh and they call for NO butter or oil. So they aren’t loaded with extra fats. And have less than 7 grams of fat. You’re welcome.

Salted Pecan and Chocolate Chip Cake Bars

Serves about 12.

Ingredients: 

  • 1 and 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp.  sea salt
  • 2 cups of brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • Sprinkles of powdered sugar

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking pan.
  2. In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a larger bowl, mix eggs, vanilla and brown sugar until lumps are gone.
  4. Mix flour and sugar/egg mixture together. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour batter into greased 8 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until cake is soft.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and extra sea salt and enjoy!

Nutritional Information per bar:

Calories: 150. 2
Fat: 6.2 grams of fat
Protein: 3 grams of protein
Fiber: 1.5 grams 

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Comments

  1. Posted by Alicia on
    Friday, March 4th, 2011
    You are KILLING me Claire! These look amazing.
  2. Posted by jacin on
    Friday, March 4th, 2011
    are you serious right now??? YUM!!!
  3. Posted by Bridget O'Brien on
    Friday, March 4th, 2011
    Thank god I'm allergic to Pecans or else these would be in my belly.
  4. Posted by Ravienomnoms on
    Friday, March 4th, 2011
    Oh goodness! Those look absolutely amazing! I am with you on this one, I would be eating like 6-10 of these in one sitting! DELISH
  5. Posted by Food Frenzy on
    Friday, March 4th, 2011
    Hmm...doesn't look like what I expected, but it sure sounds amazing. The cake looks really good.

    We invite you to share this post and some of your favorite food posts on Food Frenzy.
    Please check out our community at http://blogstew.net/foodfrenzy
  6. Posted by Kate Pet on
    Saturday, March 5th, 2011
    This looks so yummy! I've been wanting to try something like this for some time... bookmarked and going on my snack list asap!
  7. Posted by www.OurEyesEatFirst.com on
    Saturday, March 5th, 2011
    looks sooooo good! i keep seeing salted caramel but love the salted chocolate!
  8. Posted by Melissa@EyesBigger on
    Monday, March 7th, 2011
    oh yeah... i'm all over these. love that the chocolate sank. perfect!
  9. Posted by Sommer Collier on
    Monday, March 7th, 2011
    YUM. What a delicious idea!
  10. Posted by Briarrose on
    Monday, March 7th, 2011
    I do love that salty/sweet combo....it is just so yummy.
  11. Posted by Cristina on
    Saturday, March 26th, 2011
    There's always time for salty/sweet combinations ;) These look and sound DELISH...I need to do more salty n sweet and I think I'll start with these. Thx for sharing! ;)
  12. Posted by Thesimplejoys on
    Thursday, April 7th, 2011
    Thanks for putting the nutritional info, any idea how many carbs?
    • Posted by Claire Gallam10 on
      Friday, April 8th, 2011
      A similar recipe has 16.1. I couldn't find the original carb listing fot this particular recipe!
  13. Posted by Robinl63 on
    Thursday, April 7th, 2011
    Yes, I'd like to know carb amt as well. Sounds REALLY good!
    • Posted by Claire Gallam10 on
      Friday, April 8th, 2011
      I can't find the exact carbs for this recipe, but a similar recipe has 16.1. Hope this helps!
      • Posted by Robinl63 on
        Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
        Thanks Claire - have been using Weight Watchers for years as a way to maintain my weight - having all the nutritional info REALLY helps. Thanks so much!
  14. Posted by Rivki Locker on
    Thursday, April 7th, 2011
    This looks just wonderful. Never too late for to hop on the salty sweet bandwagon as far as I'm concerned! Thanks for sharing.
  15. Posted by Melissa on
    Friday, April 8th, 2011
    You mention the nutrition information 'per bar,' but how many bars did you cut the recipe into? I'm looking forward to trying these out but I don't want to cut monster bars or something :P
    • Posted by Claire Gallam10 on
      Friday, April 8th, 2011
      Thanks for asking! I think I cut around 10 bars. I plan on remaking this weekend so I will let you know again!
      • Posted by Melissa on
        Friday, April 8th, 2011
        Thanks! I really appreciate it. Do you think the recipe would work with a mix of butterscotch and chocolate chips? Or would that be too sweet?
  16. Posted by Danielle on
    Friday, April 8th, 2011
    I saw these on Jenna's blog. Lusted. Veganized. Baked. Said "Holy Moly!". Blogged about it. http://weightsandmeasures.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/trial-and-holy-moly/

    They definitely had a different texture than yours, BUT they are absolutely delicious. I really and truly enjoyed them!
  17. Posted by craftyglutton on
    Monday, April 11th, 2011
    The bars were great- we tried them this weekend... I wrote a review of the recipe here: http://nutritionfor.us/2011/03/foodie-friday-salted-chocolate-and-pecan-cake-bars/comment-page-1/#comment-920