As I write this, Milly and I are sitting here watching The Incredible Hulk, my turkey chili is simmering on the stove and once Tony gets home we’ll settle in for our dinner and enjoy one of these incredible blondies (k maybe two).
In all honesty, these are one of my favorite blondie recipes of all time. Simply because I CAN’T STOP eating them. The toasty sweet flavor of pecans is unbelievable.
When I created these blondies for the first time, I was in a euphoric state of mind. Sounds dramatic, but I don’t know how else to explain how amazing, fudgy and addicting they truly are.
Ingredients in these grain free pecan blondies
There’s something truly magical about these pecan blondies. They’re fudgy and decadent while still being completely gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free. Here’s what you’ll need to make them:
- Pecans: you’ll toast raw pecans and use them to make your own pecan butter for the blondie batter. SO GOOD. I also like to place some pecans on top of the blondies for a pretty look.
- Sweetener: these pecan blondies are naturally sweetened with coconut sugar and pure maple syrup.
- Eggs: you’ll need 2 eggs to help the blondies bake up.
- Flour: a little bit of coconut flour helps the blondies hold together while still being fudgy.
- Baking staples: don’t forget the baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract. Learn how to make your own vanilla here!
- Chocolate chips: mix chocolate chips into the batter and add them to the top of the blondies for extra fudge factor. I also like to sprinkle fancy sea salt on top!
Optional ingredient swaps
These pecan blondies are perfect as is (trust me) but there are a few simple swaps that should work well:
- Choose your nut butter: I LOVE the toasty, unique flavor of homemade pecan butter in this recipe, but feel free to use natural, drippy almond butter or cashew butter.
- Swap the coconut sugar: feel free to use brown sugar instead.
Can I make them vegan?
I think these blondies should work by using two flax eggs instead of regular eggs. Be sure to also use dairy free chocolate chips, and let me know in the comments if you try it!
Two ways to toast your pecans
- Stovetop method: Add your pecans to a pan and place over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 2-5 minutes until pecans are slightly golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool before pulsing them in your food processor to make the pecan butter.
- Oven method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until fragrant and golden brown, stirring once halfway through baking. Watch carefully so that the nuts do not burn!
Gluten free pecan blondies in
- Make the pecan butter. Toast your pecans using the stovetop or oven method, let them cool, then add them to the bowl of your food processor. Process, scrape down the sides, and process again until they reach a smooth, creamy texture like any natural nut butter.
- Mix the batter. Add 1 cup of the pecan butter to a large bowl, and mix in the rest of the wet ingredients until smooth. Stir in the coconut flour, baking soda, and salt, then fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour, top & bake. Pour the batter into an 8×8 inch pan lined with parchment paper, top with chocolate chips and extra pecans, and bake until barely golden brown on the edges. Sprinkle with fancy sea salt if you’d like!
- Cool & enjoy. Let the blondies cool before cutting into them, then enjoy!
Storing & freezing tips
- To store: I’d recommend leaving the pecan blondies on the counter for no more than a day or two and then storing them covered in the refrigerator. They’re especially delicious straight from the fridge!
- To freeze: allow the blondies to cool completely, then cut them as directed. Wrap individual blondies in plastic wrap, then in foil or a reusable bag such as Stasher bags. Freeze for up to 3 months.
More grain free treats you’ll love
- Grain Free Tahini Brownies
- Grain Free Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie (vegan + paleo)
- Healthy Peanut Butter Twix Bars (vegan & gluten free)
- Grain Free Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- Fudgy Almond Butter Blondies
Get all of my grain free desserts here!
I hope you love these fudgy grain free pecan blondies! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies
Ingredients
- For the batter:
- 2 ½ cups raw pecan halves
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips (dairy free if desired)
- For topping:
- ¼ cup chopped raw pecans
- 2 tablespoons chocolate chips (dairy free if desired)
- Fancy sea salt, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the 2 ½ cups of raw pecan halves on small baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 8 minutes, but watch carefully so the nuts do not burn. Once done toasting, allow nuts to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet. Keep heat in oven.
- Line a 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add the roasted pecans to the bowl of a food processor and process for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. At this point the pecan should start to clump together, so continue to process until you reach a smoothie consistency similar to peanut or almond butter.
- Measure out exactly 1 cup of the homemade pecan butter and add it to a large bowl. (Note: If you have any leftover you can save it for toast or spreading on fruit.)
- Next mix in coconut sugar, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Add batter to pan and spread evenly towards the sides. Sprinkle ½ cup chopped raw pecans and 2 tablespoon chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 20-27 minutes or until crust is golden brown around the edges. It’s best to underbake these blondies a bit to keep them extra fudgy. Mine were perfect around 25 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Allow blondies to cool in pan for at least 20 minutes before removing and cutting into 12 blondies. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on August 8th, 2017, and republished on January 18th, 2024.
My dad is a pecan lover and would love these!! I need to try them!
He would absolutely love these!
These sound delicious. Must give them a try soon.
They are! I hope you do 🙂
Oh mah Gahhhhhhh!!!! Girl, like you had me at pecan butter. I seriously can’t figure out why I’ve never tried that! Thanks for yet another crazy delicious recipe, Monique!!!
RIGHT?! It’s so, so delicious!
Could you do this with walnuts? Or would it change the flavor too much? I’m out of pecans, but have a plethora of walnuts, cashews and almonds.
Hi Dani! You could definitely try! It will change the flavor a bit but I think will still be great.
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These look fantastic!!! I’m assuming you could use your Homemade Salted Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter recipe to make these blondies?
Absolutely!
I don’t have coconut flour. Would almond flour work?
Hi Sue! I’ve only tested them with coconut flour, which helps to absorb the liquid from the nut butter. Almond flour would actually be too dense in this one.
I don’t blame you–I’d eat ALL of these in one go as well! I really want to try making these with flax eggs. The idea of making my own pecan butter is a bit intimidating, however, since I tried making walnut butter once and failed miserably!
Try it out and let me know how it goes! And totally understand about the homemade nut butter – just be sure to keep on blending 🙂
These look incredible!! Love the unique idea of using pecans, mmmmm!
They are! And yes – the homemade pecan butter is a game-changer!
YES!!!! Nutritional info. AND a delicious delight!
So delicious!!
[…] Addicting: Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies. Ummm, I need these. Homemade pecan butter gets transformed into bars that look ridiculously […]
I already have a raw pecan butter made would this work or must be roasted?!
The raw pecan butter should work just fine!
Amazing!! So easy to make and delicious. Thank you for the great recipe and video to follow!!
You bet! So glad you enjoyed these!
Pecans are the best part of fall! There is a pecan grove by our house we “harvest” from, we almost moved there but apparently scorpions like pecan groves so we will just admire from a distance! lol
That’s amazing! Minus the scorpions lol.
These blondies are divine, especially when eaten while enjoying the last rays of the autumn sun!:) I will definitely make them again, although I’m going to skip the coconut sugar as for me they were a little too sweet. (Even though I used only 1/8 cup of coconut sugar)
The chopped pecans for topping are such a good idea!
Thank you so much, you made my afternoon so much better!:)
I’m glad you enjoyed these, Anna! They’re a perfect treat to have on hand 🙂
[…] Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies […]
[…] 5. Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies […]
I made these for a food sensitive coworker’s birthday using chia eggs and they came out soooo freaking good! A few of my coworkers went in for immediate seconds. Thank you for the recipe!
P.S. Pecan butter may be my new favorite thing.
Amazing!! So happy they enjoyed! And YES pecan butter is the absolute best.
These were excellent! Kyle and I enjoyed them as a treat on our cold, Colorado, Sunday afternoon.
Delicious! So happy you two enjoyed 🙂
[…] Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies […]
These sound delicious and I was all set to make them until I read the nutritional information. A one inch square piece has 14 grams of fat and 13 grams of sugar? That’s a lot to pack into a 1″ square. The ingredients look so healthy, how can this be? I love your site and your recipes, and I don’t want to be a downer. Can you explain if these fats and sugars are healthy ones? Thanks you!
Hi Donna! Because these are made mostly from nuts and natural sugars, they’re going to have a higher fat content (nuts are naturally high in fat!) I like to focus more on using wholesome ingredients like whole nuts, coconut sugar, and pure maple syrup, rather than the numbers. But that being said, they’re still a dessert – everything in moderation!
Made these tonight and everyone LOVED them!! They will be gone in no time! Thanks!!
Amazing!! So happy to hear that 🙂
Made these yesterday and they were super lovely 👍
These were so delicious! I’ve been experimenting with gluten-free and dairy-free baked goods, and these are one of the best treats I’ve come across. Definitely worth repeating!
So glad you liked them!!
Love your recipes made this cake unbelievably delicious… thank you
So glad you loved it!
Could I sub the coconut sugar with a sweetener like swerve?
I don’t bake with alternative sweeteners so I’m not 100% sure how much to use. It might suggest cup-for-cup amounts on the package, though!
Hey Monique! I’ve nade these before and absolutely love them! Do you have any tips for how long i might bake them in muffin tins?? Thanks!!
Aren’t they so good?! I think you could bake as and they’d be great. They won’t really be ‘muffins’ but they’ll still be delicious. Check them around 15 minutes.
Hello do you think these would work if I replace the pecans with hazelnut? Or is hazelnut too much for these? Thank you
Hazelnut would be lovely and I think it would work well.
These are amazing! All of your recipes are great! Thanks!
So glad you liked them! Thanks Heather 🙂
[…] 31. Grain Free Salted Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies […]
[…] decided to use the recipe similar to my pecan butter blondies, except this time I wanted to use almond butter and change it up to ensure they’d be extra […]
Hi ,
Would these work well as well with brazil nuts?
Thanks a lot
Hi! I haven’t tried them with brazil nuts, but please let me know if you do!
Love these grain free pecan blondies.
This is quite possibly my favorite all time brownie. Amazing flavor and a crowd pleaser!!! I will make this again and again!
One of my favorites, too! Glad you loved it!
I tried to make this but the measurements seem off bc hers in the video came out fluffy and mine came out flat. I think it should have been 3 cups of the flour instead of tablespoons.
Hi! The recipe is written correctly. Did you add baking soda? They wont be flat if your baking soda is fresh.
Euphoric is the perfect way to describe how I felt eating these! They are amazing! I just put the banana almond bread (with chocolate chips of course!) in the oven. Thanks for amazing recipes! Keep em coming!
Love that! Hope you keep finding recipes here that you love 🙂
Another amazing recipe!!! You always knock it out of the park.
So happy you loved these!!
These are delicious. I’ve made them a few time. They always come out slightly soft. Should I bake them longer or they supposed to be like that?
I just made these today and they are TO DIE FOR!! I visit your website almost daily and I don’t know how I didn’t discover these sooner!!
So happy you loved them! I hope you keep finding new favorite recipes here 🙂
These were delicious! Even my picky teenager loved them. We topped with a little vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.
Delicious! Glad you both enjoyed 🙂
I made these wonderfully delicious brownies for Mother’s Day (Yes I made them) but I do love baking! They were so easy and awesome tasting. Very moist! I love using healthy ingredients and then the result was so good! No white all purpose flour!! Great recipe!!
So happy to hear that! The perfect treat 🙂
I can’t rate these because I haven’t made them yet, but they look amazing!
I am thinking of making multiple variations on this recipe. I have a ton of macadamia nuts. Could I use the same ingredients except use macadamia nut butter and white chocolate chips? If so, should I toast the nuts first? Thanks for the great recipe!
I haven’t tried it so I’m not certain it would work, but let me know if you give it a shot. Most macadamia nuts are already roasted, but if your aren’t, yet I would toast them.
Excellent recipe and so easy to make. Fudgy, Gooey and Tasty!
Glad you enjoyed!
These Blondies are incredible! Thank you 😀
So glad you love them!
My husband is gluten free and misses desserts. These bars are fantastic!! No gritty texture, just amazing funniness!!
So happy to hear that!
These are the best, come out great every time!
Glad you love them!
Just made these and realized I forgot to add in the coconut flour but they still turned out so fluffy and gooey and delicious! I’ll definitely save this as my go to blondie recipe!
I’m glad they still worked out! Yum 🙂
I LOVE these blondies!! I can’t even believe there is only 3 TBS of coconut flour. And that you can make such fudgey brownies out of pecan butter. Ive made them twice, and the first time when they rose in the oven they enveloped the pecan and chocolate chip toppings. This time I let them bake a little and then added the toppings before baking them some more. Perfection! Thank you!
Absolutely! Glad you love them 🙂
Beyond delicious!! Addictive and satisfying, so so dreamy!! Thank you, will be making these over & over again!
Oh yay!! So, so happy you loved these, Lauren 🙂
These are seriously SO amazing and SO addicting! I’ve made them to bring to family gatherings a few times, and even made a vegan version with chia eggs which was equally delicious. Making a pan right now (and not sharing this time!!)
Oh YAY! I’m so happy you’re loving them! Great idea to use chia eggs 🙂
This recipe is perfect and one that I have made numerous times. A great gooey blondie with healthy ingredients. Probably one of my favorites on this site 🙂
I modified your recipe as I can’t easily get hold of pecans where I’m based. It turned out exactly as I wanted (a nutella-less Nutella blondie)! I replaced the pecans with hazelnut butter and hazelnuts and I replaced the coconut sugar with brown sugar replacement but kept the maple syrup. It’s perfection! Thank you for sharing this.
These are sooooo delicious – just baked up a batch. Incredibly fluffy, chocolatey, crunchy and salty!
Woohooo! So happy you loved these, Priti!
This was really good.
Awesome! So happy you enjoyed them, thanks for the review 🙂
Perfection!!! If you can make it past tasting the warm pecan butter and actually make these, they are incredible. Don’t skip the flaky finishing salt, they take these to the next level.
Hahaha so true. Glad you loved these!
So yummy! Made for book club and it was a huge hit. The homemade pecan butter really makes the difference.
Right?! So much flavor! Glad to hear you loved them 🙂
I am standing over these eating from the pan with a spoon. So yummy! I used premade pecan butter and added a sprinkle of coconut sugar on top. Tbh they are better the second day!
Yay!! So happy you’re loving them, Renny, and good to know that they taste better the next day 🙂
I am super excited to make these but am wondering if flax eggs would work as I can’t do regular eggs
I haven’t tested that with this recipe but I believe it should work! Let me know if you try it 🙂
These were so delicious!!
I’m one of those people who doesn’t thoroughly read the recipe before starting to make it – I simply make sure I have enough time and the right ingredients. So I was surprised when I got to the part about blending up all the pecans! Personally, I would call these “chocolate chip pecan BUTTER blondies,’ to be more clear….but that’s just for people like me who get started too quickly haha,
Anyway, thank you! So good!
Thanks for the feedback! So happy you ended up loving them!
There is a girl claiming your pecan blondies recipe as her on and posting it in her digestive health Facebook group. I have a screenshot. She has a blog to http://www.laurenloliving.com and I have proven that at least 6 of the recipes there she is copied from other food creators and posted, claiming as her own. I have screenshots of them all. She also has recipe books she’s charging money for and no doubt some of these copied recipes are there. Feel free to email me for more info or the screenshot.. Just wanted to make you aware.
This looks delicious! Could I use regular flour in place of the coconut flour?
These were absolutely amazing! Moist, fudgy and the toasted pecan flavor really comes through. I wish I had made them sooner.
Amazing! I am so glad you gave these a try and are loving them, Kalera.
This is another prime example of why I ALWAYS Google: Ambitous Kitchen *insert ingredient* when looking for a new recipe. Today it was pecan. Thank you for sharing your gift with us, your recipes never fail.
Amazing! This is the best ❤️ Thanks for always using my site as a resource and for loving my recipes!
Soooo good! Thank you for this incredible recipe!! 🙂
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed!
Can these be made with almond flour instead of coconut?
Hi! I wouldn’t recommend using almond flour because it’s not as absorbent. Oat flour might be a good swap!
How do you never miss?!? I have made SO many of your recipes and they always deliver. These blondies are fantastic – the right amount of chocolate and sweetness and the texture is just right. The 2.5 cups of pecans yielded a little less than a cup once processed, but didn’t seem to effect the end result. Delicious, will make a double batch next time so I can freeze some for later.
Thanks so much, Kimberly! That’s the goal 😉 Glad you loved these!
These are fudgy and delicious. I’m wondering though why mine didn’t have the light colored crust on top? Mine came out very dark on top as well. Delicious though!
Hmm my only thought is that they could’ve been a tiny bit overbaked. Glad you enjoyed regardless!
These are incredible! Chewy edges, dense fudge center and rich depth of flavor. The pecan butter came together quickly. I used flax eggs and it turned out really well. New favorite!
So good!! Glad you loved them!
My turned out yummy, but more cakey than fudgey… any advise?
Hmmm did you make sure to use just 3 tablespoons of coconut flour? These will get even more fudgy as they sit, too!