Keto Pecan Sandy Bars. To set the stage: The day before Christmas I was making a Pie Crust, taking pictures as replacement, and had quite a bit left over so I threw it into a container and then into the freezer. Several hours later, and realizing how wonderful the pie crust is, it came to me that perhaps with little to no changes I could make kind of a shortbread cookie with it so I hauled it out of the freezer to thaw and proceeded from there and like wow, these are ridiculously good. I know there are other recipes for pecan cookies but my adage has been and remains that for maximum flavor you need to take advantage of Surface Area and what better way to do this than to grind an ingredient. Now, I do have a Carbalose Duck Fat Shortbread Cookies recipe but keto pecan sandy bars don’t have any grains in them so they are totally keto ~ paleo. Oh, and did I mention they have fat in them? Yeah, lots & lots & lots of fat.
When I was diagnosed with diabetes on September 17, 2010 my first thought was probably the same as most diabetics: Uh oh, I am never going to be able to again have______fill in the blank and I now realize that is such baloney. Examples: The recipe that eventually launched this site Carbalose Bread, Butter Pecan Ice Cream, and this recipe for Keto Pecan Sandy Bars. Gads, I can go to nearly any country in the world and enjoy low carb version of their foods.
So, we all have inspirations from time to time and these keto pecan sandy bars is one of mine. I am inspired by fabrics and colors and textures hence King Size Quilts and for 40+ years as a chef, I have been inspired by foods and their ingredients.
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As I am a Type II diabetic, all recipes on this website are keto or low carb and diabetic friendly.
- 2¼ C Almond Flour
- 1¼ C Pecans
- ½ C Allulose***
- 1 T Flaxseed Meal
- 1 T Ground Chia Seeds
- ¾ C Melted Butter
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Put almond flour in large bowl.
- Add pecans, allulose, flaxseed meal, & ground chia seeds in processor and grind all together until pecans are finely done. Add to almond flour and mix thoroughly.
- Add melted butter and mix really well.
- Spread evenly in 10”x10” baking pan and press well making sure to press the sides and corners.
- Taking a knife (or better yet a bench scraper) cut to bottom of pan (scoring) to get either 12 or 16 cuts.
- Bake 25-30 minutes until barely beginning to color on top.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool 10 minutes, re-cut scores, and cool completely.
- 16 Servings
- 186 Calories, 3.9g Protein, 18.3g Fat, 4.3g Carbs, 2.5g Fiber, 1.8g Net Carbs
- 12 Servings
- 248 Calories, 5.2g Protein, 24.4g Fat, 5.8g Carbs, 3.3g Fiber, 2.5g Net Carbs
- Bars should tamp to about ½" thick. If you use a smaller pan than suggested yes, they will be thicker but will need a time & temperature adjustment to get crispy.
- No need to grease pan as they will come out quite easily.
- When cooled the bars will be very crunchy and melt in your mouth…just like the original pecan sandies. I didn't try it because these are so good on their own but maybe ½ C of sugar-free desiccated coconut and ¼ C more butter might be pretty tasty too.
- I grind lots of chia seeds in my spice grinder and since it never takes much of it, I do a lot at one time and keep them in the freezer for future use. Again going back to surface area and why it is so important.
- I hope you can see from the pictures that I made two batches. The first pic was cut into 16 and the pan pic was into 12 pieces which made them squares.
I just found your site today. I’m loving the variety. Thank you! I have a real digestive problem with consuming Flax meal, can I substitute all Chia? Also a lot of your breads call for flax meal, can I substitute Chia in those as well?
Jeannie,
Had a lot of questions but never this one and the answer is: I have no idea and it probably won’t hurt to try it.
When you are thinking about eating flaxseed meal consider this. This particular recipe has 1 T flaxseed and when divided by the number of servings (12-16) you are only getting at most about ¼ t in each serving which is not very much. The other thing is that flaxseed is an extremely healthy food and when looking at any of my recipes about the most you could ever get is about 1 t per serving.
Hope this helps.