Looking for something different to serve this holiday season? How about some Pecan Pie Truffles! Easy to make and reminiscent of the classic pecan pie, these nutty truffles fly off the table faster than you can say “pecan”.
Our readers love fun twists on a classic pecan pie. For example, you can make this layered Pecan Pie Cake or give these delicious Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bars a try this holiday season!
Easier than Pecan Pie
How do you feel about Pecan Pie?
Some of my friends say they can’t imagine Thanksgiving without it.
Then I have those folks in my circle who take a hard pass on Pecan Pie and skip straight for the Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie or the Pumpkin Cheesecake.
These truffles, along with being a little different than your typical holiday dessert, are the perfect compromise.
Pecan Pie bar lovers get the nutty crunch and caramelized taste of the traditional pie. Chocolate addicts like me get their fix.
Plus, truffles make a great handheld dessert option! No plates or utensils required.
Ingredient Notes
- Pecans – You’ll need pecans to create the body of the truffle AND extra pecan halves for topping each one. Toast the pecans for best flavor!
- Corn syrup – Karo light corn syrup, along with brown sugar, makes these taste just like everyone’s favorite pecan pie, while helping the nuts hold together.
- Wafer cookies – Nilla wafers or a similar vanilla cookie are perfect
- Candy coating – I use both chocolate melting wafers and vanilla wafers for dipping the truffles to give them some variety. You can use all chocolate or all vanilla if preferred.
Step by Step Instructions
STEP 1. Make the truffle centers
Pulse the pecans and the cookies in a food processor to form crumbs. Mix the crumbs with the corn syrup, brown sugar and vanilla in a bowl using a spoon.
STEP 2. Freeze
Scoop this filling by the tablespoon on to a parchment lined baking sheet. Use your hands to form each scoopful into a smooth ball shape. Freeze for 30 minutes or until firm.
STEP 3. Dip
Melt the candy wafers in separate bowls. Use a toothpick to dip the frozen truffle centers into the candy coating. I did half of them in the vanilla and half in chocolate.
While the chocolate is still soft, top each truffle with a pecan half (to cover the toothpick hole).
STEP 4. Set
Put the dipped truffles back on the baking sheet and let set until the chocolate is firm! Enjoy immediately or transfer them to an airtight container.
Recipe FAQs
This is normal! Use your hands to press the mixture together as you’re forming the truffle balls. The corn syrup get sticky from the warmth of your hands and help the balls hold together.
I have yet to find any ingredient that works as well as corn syrup, both for mimicking the flavor of classic pecan pie recipes and for holding the truffles together.
Nope! While I like truffles cold, you can definitely keep these at room temperature and they’ll be just fine.
More Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bars
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Pecan Pie Brownies
- Homemade Turtles
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Pecan Pie Bundt Cake
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
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Pecan Pie Truffles
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups pecans
- 1 cup vanilla wafer cookies
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ⅓ cup light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 10 ounce Ghirardelli white chocolate wafers
- 10 ounce Ghiaradelli dark chocolate wafers
- 40 pecan halves
Instructions
- In a food processor, pulse pecans and cookies until fine crumbs. Pour into a large bowl. Add brown sugar, corn syrup and vanilla extract. Mix with a spoon until fully combined.
- Using a one tablespoon scoop, drop scoops onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet (that is freezer safe). Once all scoops have been formed, roll each scoop into a nice smooth ball with your hands. Transfer baking sheet to freezer for about 30 minutes.
- When ready, melt white chocolate and dark chocolate wafers in separate bowls according to package directions.
- Using a toothpick, dip cold truffle into either vanilla or chocolate. Tap on side of bowl to remove excess. Place back on parchment paper, remove toothpick and top with a pecan halve (to cover the toothpick hole). Repeat until all truffles are dipped.
- I like to work in two stages. It’s easier if the truffles remain very cold. So I do half of them while the other half is still in the freezer. Then I work on the second half.Store truffles in an air tight container for up to 10 days. I like them best served cold, but room temperature is delicious too!
Notes
- Crumbly: When making the truffles, the mixture will be crumbly. Use the heat from your hands to bring the truffle together by rolling it between your hands (will get sticky).
- Make ahead: You can keep the truffle centers frozen for a couple of days before dipping in the chocolate. If you’re making the centers ahead of time, transfer them to a container once set to avoid a “freezer burn” taste.
- Work in batches: The chocolate sets up much quicker if the truffle centers are still ice cold from the freezer. I like to work in two batches. Dip half the truffles in the chocolate coating while the other half stays in the freezer. Then repeat with the second batch.
- Toast the Pecans: for best flavor, use our guide on how to toast pecans, prior to assembling!
- Storing: You can store these either in the fridge to enjoy cold OR at room temperature, tightly covered. I love them best cold! Enjoy within a week for best flavor and texture.
- See blog post for more tips and tricks.
Nutrition
I promise that these creative Pecan Pie Truffles will be the talk of the holiday gathering this year! Bite sized desserts don’t get any better than this.
Your delicious pecan pie truffles recipe has been chosen as one of the best 50 Thanksgiving pecan pie recipes on the net.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Asking a dumb question, is vanilla candy coating same as white chocolate melted?
No vanilla candy coating is sometimes referred to as almond bark or melting chocolate. Hope this helps.
I made this recipe again last night an it is awesome!! I was little disappointed with taste first time, but not THIS time!! Cause I did it right !! Lol!! I figured the first time was my mistake, an yep!!!! It was!! These are awesome!!!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
So glad to hear they came out delicious for you Diana!! Glad you gave them another try 🙂
I would love to make this for a friend but they have a chocolate allergy; is it possible to not dip them in chocolate and still keep their shape? Thanks <3 pecans…
I commented previously that I thought I messed up the recipe. Well, I took them to a Scrapbooking gathering today so my friends could sample an give me input. They were a HUGE success!!!! So apparently it doesn’t matter when you measure (before or after chopping!!) thank you so much for the recipe!!!!!!
I feel the SAME way about Thanksgiving falling in the middle of my Christmas season. As a general rule, I decorate in the beginning of November (yes, it’s true) and my house is like a winter wonderland, filled with lights and decorations and a tree that is almost too big to fit in the house. And, yes, Christmas music as early as it can be tolerated (by others) in my house. LOVE Christmas!
Oh, and these truffles look heavenly as well! 🙂
I love pecan pie an decided to make these little yummy looking morsels!! I do have a question: do you measure the wafers and pecans before you chop them or after?? I measured them after I chopped them an fear I messed up the ratio of karo syrup to dry ingredients. They were hard to roll into balls an the taste I was thinking I’d find wasn’t there! I will try these again, just thought I’d ask. I’ve made lots of recipes from your site an they are all wonderful!! (I’m sure this one is my error!!) Thank you an keep them coming!!!!!
Bummer. I measured before crushing, hope that helps!!
This looks delicious and I would like to try them. Just confused about the cookies…you stated vanilla wafer cookies…do you mean just plan vanilla wafers or the wafer cookies that have a cream filling between the wafers?
I think they are actually called Nilla Wafers, not the kind with filling! Enjoy!
These are delicious and you are right, once the syrup warms up in your hands while rolling the truffles, they roll up just fine. I would like to add one tip about dipping. I have been making cakeballs, peanut butter balls, truffles for years and have developed some things that work for me. I melt my chocolate or almond bark in a large glass measuring cup in the microwave. It is deep, the glass stays warm and perfect with the handle. I always use a plastic fork to dip the balls. Take a sturdy, good quality, plastic fork and break off all the tines except one. The balls slide right off the plastic tine onto the parchement paper after dipping. I throw the ball into the chocolate, flip it once with the fork, stab it and drop onto my parchment or wax paper (foil works too). I put a dab of chocolate to cover the hole left or a decoration. Just like using a plastic knife to cut through a pan of brownies without sticking, this works like a charm when dipping cakeballs or truffles. My husband thinks it’s strange that I have several plastic forks in the drawer with one tine. He calls them our Texas Toothpicks 🙂
I made these for thanksgiving and they were tasty, but I had a similar issue add a previous commenter. I had to add notably more karo syrup to make the balls hold together. I also used melted chocolate chips for the coating because I didn’t have candy coating. The chocolate chips worked out great, but white chocolate chips are not as straightforward to melt as a coating (the whole thing seized up after only a few balls were coated). Which is a bummer because the white chocolate ones were really good! 🙂
The mixture is crumbly until you start forming and pressing your balls. The candy coating DEFINITELY is a better choice for dipping the truffles as it doesn’t need to be tempered like chocolate does.
Pecan pie is a favorite but because of corn allergies I wonder if you could substitute honey? Similar consistency & flavor? I’m not an expert baker so wondering what you think? Thanks so much!
I made these for Thanksgiving and wasn’t real impressed. While they had a pretty good flavor, it was way to much pecan. I think if I try them again I’ll add more of the cookies to break down the over abundance of nuts, or less nuts. Just a bit to earthy to me. I think they actually taste better without the chocolate!
I just finished making these to take to a Thanksgiving dinner. A couple of things:
1) I found I needed to add more Karo syrup to get them to stick together.
2) I gave up trying to roll them in balls. Some are balls, some are not yet they’re all edible!
3) Mine are not *nearly* as pretty as yours, but they still look tasty – just VERY homemade!
4) Some are dipped in chocolate, some are dipped in vanilla and some are dipped in chocolate and drizzled with vanilla.
I haven’t tasted any yet, but my picky 9 year old tasted the filling and loved it. I plan on taking some to Thanksgiving and saving some for a Chanukah party I’m hosting on Saturday night since you said they last for 10 days. I’ve got them stored in containers in the refrigerator. Hope that’s right!
Thanks for all the great recipes! Happy Holidays!
YUM! I think I “like” every recipe you post 😀 lol
Thank you 🙂
These were so easy to make and oh so yummy! I used Honey Nut Chex instead of the vanilla wafers, so that way they would be gluten free! I didn’t have time to dip them in chocolate so I just rolled them in powdered sugar. They were a huge hit at the party I went to this weekend. I’m definitely going to be making more of these for the holidays!
So glad you enjoyed them Mindy! Love the ideas you used to make them too!
These are so yummy! I will be making them for Thanksgiving, since none of my “test batch” are likely to make it till then. To be honest, they probably won’t make it to the weekend!
Pecan pie is a holiday staple in our family. I can’t wait to make these and add to the tradition!
Enjoy Anne!
Yum, these truffles look wonderful 🙂 I love this recipe!
Thank you sweetie 🙂 You leave the nicest comments!
Such a cute idea! I love it.
Pinned!
Just wondering if there are any modifications for those without a food processor? And do you mean 1/2 cup of waffers once they have been ground, or before?
Before!! You can use a blender.