We’re doing American Thanksgiving today and although it’s not on my list of usual suspects, I thought I’d try making a pecan pie. Except I have real issues with most pecan pie, which is generally Far Too Sweet (and I have a massive sweet tooth, so if I’m complaining about something being too sweet it’s weird) and doesn’t taste much of pecans.
So I went and found a no-corn-syrup recipe, but then I lacked some of the ingredients and anyway, I kind of ended up inventing a pecan pie recipe that Ted thought was the best pecan pie he’d ever had.
Catie’s Pecan Pie:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/8 cup water
3 eggs, room temperature
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups pecans, chopped
Toast the pecans in the oven at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until they’re toasted and smell gorgeous. Do not burn!
Preheat the oven to 400°.
Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the sugars, molasses and water and bring to a low boil (the idea here is just to melt the sugar so it’s not grainy in your pie). Set aside to cool a little while you make your pie crust and the custard mix.
Whisk the eggs, flour, milk, and vanilla together. Whisk the sugar mixture in until thoroughly incorporated. Add the pecans and mix in thoroughly, until they’re entirely coated.
Pour into a prepared 9″ deep dish pie pan. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 325° and bake for at least another 30 minutes. Mine wasn’t done yet then. I turned the heat down even more so the crust wouldn’t burn & baked for another 15 minutes, until a fork poked into it came out clean.
This pie really is all about the pecans. If you have a nice big deep pie dish like I’ve got you can probably increase the custard/sugar mix by about a quarter without risking overflow, but Ted felt vehemently that it was Exactly Right as is. :)
