Pecan Pie for Recipe Friday

I took the day before Thanksgiving off this year to hang out with my son and do some baking. I knew I wanted to make coconut macaroon cookies, but I also wanted to make a pie for Thanksgiving. After all, Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanksgiving without some kind of pie. We aren’t terribly fond of plain pumpkin pie at our house so I was looking for an alternative.

I texted my husband “Pecan Pie or Pumpkin Cheesecake” and got the reply text “Pecan!” So I searched the Internet for a pecan pie recipe and found this one, which I modified a bit. Most of the recipes I found called for Karo corn syrup, but this one uses brown and white sugar instead. It turned out great! It had all the wonderful pecan flavor without that sticky too-sweet quality that a lot of pecan pies have. Since I truly love pecans, I increased the amount of pecans in the recipe, and to make it a bit decorative added the pecan halves to the top. Also, since I usually have dark brown sugar in the cupboard I used that instead of the light brown sugar the original recipe called for.

Finally, a note about the crust. Long ago I quit making pie crust because mine never turned out very good. I have always used the Pillsbury refrigerated crust, but when I went to the store that day they were completely out of the refrigerated crust. The Marie Callender’s frozen deep dish crust was all I could find. But it turns out I like it better than the refrigerated kind, and my husband even commented on how good the crust was. Nonetheless, if you are adept at making pie crust I’m sure this pie would turn out just fine with homemade crust.

Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups chopped pecans
8 pecan halves
1 Marie Callender’s frozen deep dish pie crust

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar, and flour and mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla, and nuts. Pour into an unbaked frozen pie crust. Place pecan halves at intervals so there is one on each “slice” of pie. Put aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent burning. Place pie on a cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done. Remove aluminum for last 10 minutes of baking. Serve with whipped cream.