My husband loves Charleston Chews, so his ears perked up when I mentioned I'd found a recipe. Unfortunately for him it was not the chocolate covered nougat bar you throw in the freezer and crack into pieces, but rather a Southern bar cookie made with butter, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and nuts. So to avoid getting them mixed up with the candy, hereforth these are Charleston Chewies -- not Chews.

Gluten-Free Charleston Chewies — Two Charleston Chewies on a plate

Aka Praline Squares and Savannah Chewies

Actually, the recipe looked really familiar. It was very similar to Praline Squares or Praline Bars, which I've been making since childhood. And not only do they go by Charleston Chewies, but I found another version called Savannah Chewies. And all this time I've just been calling them Praline Squares. The fact is, all that reading about them made me hungry for chewy brown sugary things, so I decided to see if I could make them gluten-free without losing that chewiness.

Praline Squares aka Charleston Chews or Chewies

So my experiment, which was basically substituting ½ cup of King Arthur's Measure for Measure gluten-free blend, worked out well. At first I thought it hadn't because the bars came out of the oven really soft and floppy. But once cooled, they were chewy. Refrigerating them made them even chewier and freezing even moreso.

Some Variations

There are so many little changes you can make to these bars. You can use walnuts rather than pecans, and if you like brown butter you can try using that. I made one batch with browned butter and thought the bars were a little chewier, but I need to try it again to be sure.

Loaf Pan Version

I also tested a half version in a loaf pan using half an egg (2 tablespoons beaten), plus ½ cup brown sugar, 2 T. butter and so forth. The loaf pan version worked too, and the best part was that every piece was an edge. So if you want a really small batch, just halve everything and bake for about 18 minutes at 325 degrees F. in a 9x5 inch or 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan. I think my next experiment will be the loaf pan version using pasteurized egg whites from a carton.

Charleston Chewies Ingredient Notes

Butter -- You can use salted or unsalted. Both regular and browned butter will work.
Brown Sugar -- Light or use a mixture of light and dark.
Egg -- You only need one.
Gluten-Free Flour Blend -- You'll need about 68 grams of blend. Normally this is about a half cup, but blends are all different so it's best to weigh. For instance, if you using Pillsbury's blend you'd only need a generous ⅓ cup because ⅓ cup of their blend usually weighs around 160 grams. Never trust volume measurements with gluten-free blends until you are very familiar with them, and be sure to use one with xanthan gum.
Baking Powder -- I like Rumford
Salt
Nuts -- Toasted pecans are great, as are walnuts. If using the pecans, you can toast them in the oven ahead of time or just do a quick "toast" in the microwave. Directions are in the notes, but it's pretty easy and save a lot of time. Walnuts don't really need to be toasted, but no one's stopping you if you want to do it anyway.
Sea Salt -- With all the brown sugar and butter, you can't go wrong with a little Maldon on top.
Black Strap Molasses -- This isn't actually an ingredient in the list, but I think next time I make these I'm going to throw in a teaspoon and see what happens.

Recipe