The Best Pecan Pie I Have Ever Made

Disclaimer:  It's also the only pecan pie I have ever made, but it is really really good.  Delicious.  So good, I'm already planning to make another one.



Mi amiga Chloe mentioned that she had gone out to harvest her pecans before a big winter storm was due to hit yesterday, and I immediately jumped on that important tidbit of information, and suggested that we get together to bake pecan pies.  Because she had pecans.  Obviously.  It's what one does in a storm.  Thou shalt bake.

And so we did.  Bake.  We spent two hours cracking pecans this morning in order to gather enough pecan pieces to make two pies.  And once we were done, we realized that we had hardly put a dent in her pecan supply.

The pies themselves were easy to make.  The hardest part was cracking the nuts.



Because I can't follow a recipe without changing it, I am going to post the recipe that we used here, since it doesn't exist anywhere else.  It didn't even exist before this morning, and it's a good one.  A recipe worth writing down.  So here goes...

Pie Crust:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold water

Make it a pie crust.

I realize that these instructions aren't that valuable to others, but they serve me.  Also, there are probably a ton of more helpful instructional videos on pie crust construction on YouTube, so if you have never made a pie crust, start there.  Then, use these ingredients.

Filling:

3 eggs
1 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Penzeys Pie Spice
1 1/4 cups pecan halves

Put the eggs, syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla and spice in the mixer and mix well.  Stir in pecan halves.  Pour the filling into the pie crust.  Cover the edges of the pie with foil, or use one of those pie edge covers that I don't have.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Remove the foil/edge cover.  Bake for another 25 minutes, or until a knife in the center comes out clean.  Cool and store in refrigerator.  Or eat it.  You might just want to go ahead and eat it, because it's good.  You have my permission to carry on thus.  Keep calm and eat pie.

In fact, we had pecan pie for dinner tonight.  I figure that the pecans have protein.  The pastry is a part of the bread group.  Add a glass of milk and that's another food group covered.  Done and done.