Kentucky Derby Bars have a graham cracker crust and a gooey, sweet pecan, walnut, and chocolate chip filling. Wonderfully sweet and perfect for a Kentucky Derby party.
Graham Cracker Crust
A graham cracker crust tastes great with practically any type of filling. You can use either regular graham crackers or chocolate for extra chocolate flavor. Regular graham cracker crumbs can be purchased in a box or you can make them by processing graham crackers in a food processor until finely ground. If you don’t have a food processor, place them in a ziptop bag and crush them with a rolling pin or heavy pan.
Gooey Sweet Filling
The gooey filling is full of walnuts, pecans, and chocolate chips. Brown sugar, plus light and dark corn syrup make it wonderfully sweet. Three eggs help the filling set up.
Wait for the bars to cool completely before slicing. These bars taste great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Substitutions
Instead of using 1 cup walnuts and 1 cup pecans, you can use all walnuts or all pecans.
I like the flavor of a combination of light corn syrup and dark corn syrup, but you can use all one or the other.
Dark brown sugar can be used instead of light brown sugar.
Storage
Bars can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 5 days.
More Derby Day Recipes
Kentucky Derby Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups graham cracker crumbs, regular or chocolate
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Filling
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
- 1/4 cup salted buttter, melted
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 (12-ounce) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil. Spray it well with cooking spray with flour.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar and egg white.Press into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.
- In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, light corn syrup, and dark corn syrup.
- Whisk in melted butter, eggs, vanilla and salt.
- Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.Pour over crust.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing.
Nutrition
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Recipe adapted from Southern Lady Magazine
Why the aluminum foil? I’ve made many graham cracker crust “bars” and never lined the pan with foil, what’s the benefit?
Does the aluminum foil serve any purpose other than easy cleanup?