For Thanksgiving I made two pecan pies. One to keep and one to take. I love pie making and baking. I'm a baker at heart.
Pies, cakes, sometimes cookies. Casseroles, veggies. I like them all baked rather than fried.There's something about an oven that floats my boat. Perhaps it's that whole "return to the womb" thing that psychologists natter on about as the basis of our compulsions and neuroses.
My recipe follows. I'm specific about brands because those are what I use and why my pecan pies are to die for. Your results may not be so to-die-for if you use other ingredients. I normally use Dixie Crystals sugar, but my Thanksgiving pies were made with Domino because that's what my grocer had in stock the day I shopped for sugar ages ago.
- One and one-fourths sup of white sugar
- A half cup of Karo light corn syrup
- A half stick of unsalted butter (Land o Lakes)
- Three large brown eggs
- Two cups (or eight ounces) of whole pecans (Terri Lynn)
- Two tablespoons of Madagascar bourbon pure vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey)
- One nine -inch pie crust (Pillsbury in the red box in the dairy case)
- A pinch of all-purpose flour
Set your oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Evenly distribute/sprinkle pinch of flour inside pie pan. This helps your crust not stick to the pan and eases removal and serving of pie. Then unroll pie crust, place it evenly into pie tin, and then crimp the crust's edges.
Slightly beat three eggs in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter in a two quart saucepan. Stir as the ingredients melt. Bring to a boil over high heat until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add this mixture to the eggs, whisking the eggs as you add the hot mixture.
Add vanilla.
Add pecans and stir them in the bowl so they are coated with the bowl's contents. Let this cool to warm; usually about 20 minutes.
Pour into pie crust and bake forty to forty-five minutes. Cool ninety minutes before serving. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is recommended to cut the sweet, gooey richness and allow people to finish eating their slice of pecan pie.
As I've written here previously, I never liked pecan pie until I made this recipe. And actually, mine is typically the only pecan pie I eat. I've studied pecan pie recipes. The ingredients are usually the same. My theory is that melting the butter, sugar, and corn syrup together first, and then whisking that together with the eggs makes all the difference in the world when it comes to pecan pie flavor and structural integrity.
