Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars (Vegan GF)

A no-bake biscuity base with a thick rich chocolate fudge topping studded with pecans. These bars are delicious, decadent and are naturally vegan and gluten-free and can be refined sugar-free depending on your chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving 2020 to all my virtual friends and online friends who celebrate thanksgiving. Even though we don’t celebrate here in the UK, I love the focus on spending time with loved ones and all the food – it’s basically like a practice of Christmas with all the trimmings. 

As we’re in the UK, desserts like pecan pie aren’t that common and although I have tried a couple, I haven’t gone all out and made one – yet. So in the meantime I thought I’d combine my love for the festive season, pecan pie and chocolate in these Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars.

They are naturally vegan, gluten-free and require no-baking. The base is a classic biscuity crumbly base made mainly from oats and the topping is something special: I ate one a day for a long time and I was still sad when I finished the last batch. The fudge layer is so thick and smooth studded with crunchy nutty pecans. I basically kept it simple and veganised a typically non-vegan fudge recipe that calls for butter, cream and chocolate – you’d never even know this version was vegan! That’s the best part.

For the chocolate pecan fudge layer we need a few ingredients:

• Sugar: you can use all coconut sugar to keep this refined sugar free (and I love the flavour) or you can use half white, half light brown sugar for a lovely sweet smooth taste and texture.
• Coconut oil: this is our butter replacement. The resulting fudge doesn’t taste like coconut, but the texture is smooth and silky but holds its shape well.
• Coconut cream: this is instead of using dairy cream and comes in cartons. This isn’t the same as coconut milk in a tin, it’s best to use a tin/carton of actual coconut cream as the texture is the silkiest.
• Chocolate: you can use any chocolate, make sure it’s dairy-free to   keep this recipe vegan and opt for refined sugar free chocolate, if needed. I used a really festive clementine dark chocolate for this, and they were great.
• Salt: this is key for a sweet and salty balance!
• Pecans: obviously! In honour of pecan pie, these are pretty essential but if you’d prefer to use walnuts or almonds, for example, these would also be delicious.

Heat the first three ingredients together before whisking in the chocolate to reach the smoothest consistency. Stir in the pecans and allow the bars to set on top of the biscuit base. Again, this part of the recipe is really easy:

• Oats
• Coconut oil
• Maple syrup
• Salt

And that’s it! All of the ingredients are stirred together ad pressed down to form a no-bake biscuit base. 

These Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars are pretty addictive: this is your warning. I’ve said this serves 8 but they are quite large bars as they are quite thick, so feel free to chop them smaller, if you like!

I hope you will love these Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars as much as I do – they are rich and fudgy, crunchy but smooth and have a delicious silky texture. They are naturally vegan and gluten-free and require no-baking, making them a delicious afternoon snack with a cup of tea or dessert.

If you are looking for more no-bake sweets, how about my:

• Chocolate Peanut Butter Gummy Bear Rocky Roads
• Coconut and Raspberry Wagon Wheel Bites
• Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge Brownies
• Chocolate Pumpkin Cookie Dough Truffles
• Golden Caramel Chocolate Slices

Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars (Vegan GF)

• Servings: 8
• Time: 30 minutes plus 3-4 hours chilling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

A no-bake biscuity base with a thick rich chocolate fudge topping studded with pecans. These bars are delicious, decadent and are naturally vegan and gluten-free and can be refined sugar-free depending on your chocolate.

Ingredients

Base:
• 250g oats, into flour
• 80g coconut oil, melted
• 40g maple syrup
• A pinch of salt
Topping:
• 180g coconut sugar (or half white sugar and half light brown)
• 80g coconut oil
• 130g coconut cream
• 180g dark chocolate, broken up
• A pinch of salt
• 150g + 20g pecans

Directions

1. Line a dish (approx. 11cm x 18cm) with parchment paper.
2. Prepare the base ingredients by blitzing the oats into a flour in a blender. Add to a mixing bowl and pour in the melted coconut oil, maple syrup and salt. Stir to a stick dough.
3. Press the mixture down firmly into the dish to form an even base layer and place in the freezer while you make the topping.
4. For the fudge layer, melt together the sugar, coconut oil and cream in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes, whisking thoroughly. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate and a pinch of salt until really smooth.
5. Stir through the 150g chopped pecans and pour over the base layer. Smooth over the top, sprinkle over the other 20g chopped pecans and place in the fridge for 3-4 hours to set. Remove from the fridge and slice into 8 bars or squares. Store in the fridge and eat at room temperature.

I look forward to hearing what you think of these Chocolate Pecan Fudge Bars so please let me know in the comments below. If you make these, pleas tag me in your creations – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With pecan fudge love x