I have become a bit of a maple syrup connoisseur. I love trying different brands and infusions. There is so much great maple syrup out there produced by small companies flavored with everything from coffee beans to star anise and bottled at different flavor intensities. It really is so fun to try different syrups and find which ones are the tastiest and for what purpose. For these bars I actually used an apple brandy barrel aged maple syrup from Runamok – who knew such a cool thing existed?
Though I don’t love baking with honey as much, there are plenty of high quality honeys out there with different flavors. It’s kind of crazy how the flavor and color of honey can change based on where it is from. But this is a maple syrup recipe, so I digress …
I’m also a big fan of searching out the best nuts. I have fallen in love with Terrasoul’s walnuts and pecans. They are so big, not all broken up into tiny pieces, and have such good flavor. While there are a lot of flavor stars in these bars, walnuts are definitely a big player and they totally shine here when paired with the syrup and espresso.
Pecan bars are always a go to but walnut bars should at least share the spotlight with them. They have more earthiness than sweet pecans which make these bars complex and rather irresistible.
Coffee Maple Walnut Bars
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 9 bars 1x
Description
Move over pecan bars, these bars have maple syrup, espresso, vanilla, and tons of walnuts as the stars.
Ingredients
Crust
½ cup coconut oil, room temperature
1 cup paleo flour blend (2 cups almond flour, 1 ¼ cups tapioca starch, ¾ cup coconut flour)
¼ cup maple sugar
Filling
2 tablespoons paleo flour blend
½ cup maple sugar
1 cup pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
1 cup walnuts
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/ 325 degrees F convection. Make the crust. In a medium bowl, mix together oil, flour, and sugar until the mixture is combined and forms a dough. Press into an 8 inch square pan and bake about 15 minutes until golden brown. Set aside while you make the filling.
Make the filling. In a medium bowl (feel free to use the same one from the crust), stir together flour, sugar, syrup, espresso, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs. Finish by stirring in the walnuts and salt. Pour over the baked crust and bake an additional 25-30 minutes until mostly set and golden brown on top.
Cool completely in the pan before slicing and serving. Bars may be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen, wrapped in parchment and foil and placed in a zipper bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature about 30 minutes.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Saveur
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
Leave a Reply