I recently made these Caramel Pecan Bars that I had been drooling over for the last few months. I saw them on Kristen’s site and just couldn’t get over how delicious they looked. They have a pecan cookie bottom with a thick gooey caramel layer over it, and crushed pecans sprinkled over the sticky top. I drizzled lots of chocolate on top of my bars, because I happen to think that caramel and chocolate are best when paired together. These were great bars, and I whole-heartedly recommend the recipe! The only thing is, when it came time to cut my bars into pieces, the caramel was very difficult to cut through; they were too sticky and hard, so while I didn’t get a nice even cut the way Kristen did, I certainly got an arm workout! Perhaps I cooked the caramel too long so it got too high in it’s “firm ball” range and closer to the “hardball” stage? I was trying to be very careful with temperatures, but it’s possible that this was the problem. In any case, the bars were rich and tasty, and the soft cookie bottom was a great contrast with the chewy caramel and crunchy pecans.
Those look delicious! I can see why you wanted to try them.
it looks like they turned out great!
thanks for letting me know you made them!
about the temperature- I found that it’s really easy to under or overcook the caramel, too. you kind of have to watch it close in the last 5 minutes or so… and yes, if your caramel was too hard when it cooled, try about 5 degrees less next time. it should be firm, but still stretchy when you pull the bars apart. i generally go right below hardball stage, so it’s firm, but not rock hard. i definitely had to do a little research on candy making when i tried the caramel for the first time, because I had no idea about soft ball/ hard ball stage, or anything. if you boil it to just soft ball stage, and let them cool for about 5-10 minutes, they make really good chewy caramel candies, too.