This is just a killer pie. I’ve tweaked it over the years to yield a creamier and less cloyingly sweet dessert than the traditional corn syrup goo pie.

Pecan Pie

 

1 ¼  cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup (may substitute Maple Syrup)

1/3 cup honey

3 tablespoons molasses

8 tbs butter (1 stick)

¼ cup glögg. Or dark rum. Or no rum

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

4 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1/3 cup light cream, or half & half

1 ½ cups broken pecans (overflowing cups, that is.  Don’t be stingy with the nuts, baby)

¾ cup or more pecan halves

 

Unbaked 9” pie crust, preferably in a pie pan

 

Oven @ 350^o  F.

1.  In a heavy pan over medium heat, melt the brown sugar, syrup, honey, molasses, butter, glögg, and salt.  Bring to a low boil, stirring constantly – you’ll hate life if this burns – and let it boil for a minute.  Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature..

 

2.  Get a bowl and beat the eggs with the cream and vanilla until it is light and frothy.  Stir the egg mix into the cooled syrup mix until it’s well blended.  Stir in the broken nuts.  There’s a lot of nuts here.  Which is fine, since it is a pecan pie.  The nuts also help cut the sweetness of the pie because, if you hadn’t noticed, there’s loads of sugars in this recipe.

 

3.  Now stir in the whole nuts.  You probably could have done this at the same time as the broken pieces.  But why the hell should everything be so easy for you?

 

4.  Pour this filling into the pie crust and shimmy the thing a bit – most of the whole (and now glazed) nut halves will rise to the surface.   Stick the pie on a baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, checking during the latter part of the cooking to make sure the crust doesn’t over cook.  If such a danger exists, take a sheet of foil and loosely cover the pie.  It’s done when a toothpick or other piece of wood (no table legs) inserted in the center of the pie comes back out clean. 

 

5.  Let it cool at least twenty minutes before attempting to eat.

 

variants

Chocolate Nut Pie – a Bad Ass Variation:  follow the Pecan Pie recipe with the following changes

Reduce brown sugar to ¾ cup

Skip the molasses and double the corn syrup

Melt 6oz  milk chocolate (chips, Hershey’s Bar etc.) into the butter/sugar mixture as you heat it.

You can use semi-sweet chocolate for a stronger flavor.

Follow the rest of the instructions as is. 

Try an alternate nut.  Macadamias are insane in the good way here.  Peanuts find happiness too.