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Epicurious

Graham Cracker-Pecan Crunch

My cousin Vera sent me this recipe from Ann (Mrs. Dan) K. Lucy, a regular at the Elderville Cemetery Association’s annual homecoming picnic held on the grounds of the modest East Texas church where my great-great-grandparents met. It did not look promising. How could a layer of common graham crackers with butter, sugar, nuts, and toffee tossed on top amount to much? Then I made them—and repented. (My sincerest apologies to Mrs. Lucy.) I have taken this confection to several potlucks and have yet to escape without someone (or two or even three fellow guests) begging me for the recipe. I have made them a day in advance and been unable to resist snacking on them—just a few at a time, mind you—so that by the time they arrived at their intended destination their numbers were severely diminished. These crisp little squares are divine, seriously addictive, and making them is almost as easy as dropping dollar bills into the church-offering basket.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes about 4 1/2 dozen 2-inch-square confections

Ingredients

15 double graham crackers
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans
1 (8-ounce) package toffee bits
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a half-sheet (13 by 18-inch) pan with aluminum foil. Arrange graham crackers side by side and end to end to cover the pan in a single layer. Sprinkle pecans evenly over the crackers and cover with toffee bits. In a heavy skillet or saucepan set over medium-high heat, bring the butter and sugar to a boil; continue boiling for 2 1/2 minutes. Immediately pour over the cracker-pecan-toffee layers. Bake for about 12 minutes. While still hot, use a pizza cutter to cut the bars into squares or diagonally into diamonds. Cool in the pan, then lift the foil lining out and stack the squares on a serving platter.

  2. do it early

    Step 2

    These can be made up to 3 days in advance and kept in an airtight container at room temperature. Well wrapped, they can be frozen for up to 3 weeks. Do not leave them out for too long in humid weather, or they lose their crunch and become sticky. If the weather is terribly humid, keep them in the refrigerator until serving.

  3. tip

    Step 3

    I’ve substituted crushed chocolate-covered toffee bars for the toffee bits with great results. I used six 1.4-ounce bars—as close as I could come to matching the recipe’s 8-ounce package of toffee bits. Whatever size toffee bars you use, just do the math—most candy bars list weight in ounces on the package—to determine how many you’ll need. To crush, smack them, fully wrapped, with a pestle, heavy mallet, or rolling pin.

Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved. A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances. Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.
TagsDessertGraham CrackerPecanNutToffeeQuickEasyMake AheadBakingCookbooks
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