Pecan Pie
This is the best Pecan Pie I’ve ever tasted! This holiday favorite is made better with the addition of browned butter and no corn syrup.
Oh, pecan pie, my love.
I never tried pecan pie until I first started (really) baking, which was just after my 16th birthday (AKA just a little over three years ago).
I had always found the pie curious, and I’d always wanted to try it, but my family always stuck with the requisite apple and pumpkin for the holidays, and I never really got the chance.
When I began to realize I could make whatever desserts I want…whenever I wanted…I realized I needed to try the pie I’d always found so curious.
What was that weird layer of sticky goo? How did they cut the pieces so smoothly without completely ruining how the pie looks (a question I still don’t know the answer to…)? What did it even taste like?
Well, turns out, I’m a bit of a pecan pie snob. The first recipe I ever made is the same recipe I’m sharing today. I found it on allrecipes.com, and it was made with no corn syrup, which was a necessity considering I had none in the house and was much too lazy to go out and get some.
The pie turned out to be more than I imagined it would be. Sweet, nutty, flavorful, and totally delicious. I was hooked.
While I love most pecan pies, this recipe has no competition as my favorite. I’m not a fan of the cloyingly sweet factor that corn syrup adds, and so the no corn syrup recipe is the best option for me. It’s heaven on a plate.
I’ll eat this warm, straight out of the oven, or frozen, slice in hand like pizza, or anywhere in between.
While I love all my desserts, pecan pie is one of the few that I have zero will power over. If it’s sitting on the counter, I will eat it. I will eat it all, and it will take a surprisingly short amount of time.
I have made a few changes to the original recipe, such as browning the butter (!!!), which I guess is only optional, but highly recommended, and doubling the amount of pecans.
I hope you’ll try this recipe, and share it with your family! It’s the ultimate fall dessert comfort food.
PrintPecan Pie
- Yield: 1 9-inch pie 1x
Ingredients
- Your favorite 9-inch deep dish pie crust recipe (or a frozen crust (like Ms. Smith’s Deep Dish Pie Crust)*)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (browned and cooled slightly)
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon milk (any fat content is fine)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups pecans (chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).
- In large bowl, beat the eggs until slightly foamy. Stir in the browned butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk together until fully combined. Stir in the flour, milk, and vanilla. Add the pecans and stir until they are fully coated.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell. Bake in the preheated oven at 400°F for 10 minutes, and then lower the oven to 325°F and bake for another 40-50 minutes, or until the top no longer jiggles in the center. Cool completely before slicing and serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes
*Update 11/25: Some people have said that this filling doesn’t fill their deep dish pie plate. I think some are bigger than others, so if you want to ensure your pie is completely filled, you can 1.5x the recipe, or use a normal sized pie dish and have a bit left over if you think your dish may be a little bigger than normal.
*Update 12/29: Someone let me know it’s easy to make this pie gluten-free! Replace the flour with your favorite GF flour blend and use a gluten-free pie crust.
Love pecan pie too! I also don’t like corn syrup so I’ll definitely try this recipe! Thanks! :)
This is my boyfriend’s favorite kind of pie. :) Definitely bookmarking!
This is great! My mom just doesn’t allow me to keep corn syrup in the house – she blames it for all that is wrong in the world. Seriously. And my dad and I love pecans. Thanks!
Glad I could help! I definitely prefer not to use corn syrup. Hope you enjoy! :)
In our family, it is quite the opposite: We’ve gotta have pecan pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas! My daughter started making pumpkin pie too a couple of years ago but it would not be the holidays without pecan pie. (I use an old family recipe from my aunt who used to make 10 or 12 every Christmas! No kidding. And by the time all the family went home a couple of days after the holiday, there were no leftovers. And we are not that big a family.) I am with you on doubling the pecans. The more, the merrier for any pie. Yours is gorgeous!
This looks really beautiful! I love pecan pie :)
I love this! I’m a huge pecan pie fan and I’ve never thought to add brown butter… Yum! Love that element and I adore that you chose to use a recipe without corn syrup. I’m definitely bookmarking this to make ASAP!
We are on the same wavelength this week with pecan pie! But I just spotted your pumpkin recipe… cannot wait to try these both!
Ooh now I’m ready for Thanksgiving because of your pie!
I don’t even like pecans but that is one beautiful looking pie! And I don’t know how you made such a clean cut either. I wish I had such excellent cutting skills. :)
Can’t take credit for the cuts! The reason there are no pictures of the cut pie is because I totally messed up the first two pieces I cut…but my mom came to the rescue! She threw it in the freezer and when it came out it cut perfectly. Mom’s know best, right?! Haha
I love pecan pie. Yours looks so appetizing! I want a piece right now…or two or three… And I have to agree with Erin, this is one amazing clean cut.
This is a terrific version of pecan pie. Double the pecans and brown butter. Oh my!
This is in my oven right now – smells amazing. Although, i was confused by the deep dish pie crust thing – I rolled out my crust from scratch and put it in a deep dish pie plate. But the filling only filled it half way up. I had to make a second batch of the filling and see how long it takes to cook! Anyway, other than that – looks amazing. But it definitely wont fill up a true deep dish pie crust.
Hi Miranda! I hope it turned out well. I think some deep dish pie dishes are bigger than others, and that could be where the issues lie! I’ll add something in the recipe to note the discrepancy, because I’ve noticed size differences in my pie dishes as well. I hope it was delicious!!
Rachel, I meant to tell you this when we were back at school, but this pecan pie was SUCH a hit at my family’s Thanksgiving. There was another pecan pie there too, and this one was definitely voted the fan favorite. I absolutely CANNOT say enough about browned butter… I think I would drink it if it was socially acceptable. I also appreciate this recipe because I’m gluten free, and it was super easy to convert without messing with it too much, since it only requires a tablespoon of all-purpose flour (I used a little sweet rice flour and a touch of tapioca flour, I think). I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday at home; I’ll see you in January!
xoxo
Hannah
PS: Enjoy the snow for me!! I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit in a ski trip this year :(
Thanks Hannah! I know, brown butter is like heaven on earth. Love the stuff. So glad you liked the pie, it’s definitely one of my favorites too. Good to know about the GF adaptation too – I haven’t tried making this GF, but my sister is GF so now I know how to make it for her. :) See you in January!
I just celebrated Thanksgiving in New Zealand (it is May, but feels like fall) and made this pie recipe. WOWZA, what a hit! It was devoured in minutes. Definitely my go to pecan pie recipe for ever. Thanks!
So glad that you liked it Christina!! Happy Thanksgiving :)
Hi Rachel!
The last time I had pecan pie was 8 years ago before moving to Germany. This past summer I figured it was time to make it again and introduce it to my 3 boys. Corn syrup is not readily available, so I was looking for a more natural pecan pie recipe and came across the same one from allrecipes.com. I made it as written and it was delicious! My kids thought it was too sweet and my husband isn’t big on sweets, so I ended up eating the pie myself over a course of a couple of days. I gained 5 lbs but it was worth it! LOL I did lose it, though…. :-)
I love the idea of browning butter and doubling the pecans! I’m so glad I came across your blog! Thanks for sharing your idea! I will definitely try your version this weekend and let you know how it goes. :-)
Sincerely,
Rosa
PS: I signed up to get new posts by email. Love your blog!
So glad that you like my blog, and I really hope you like the recipe! Please do let me know what you think of it :)
Well well well… :D
I’m super excited to try this.
I’m not very strict in trying to find HFCS free foods, but the idea of pecan pie has always given me the willies…a full cup of the stuff? blegh.
However, my husbands favorite pie is pecan pie, and I feel bad about not making it for him, so super duper excited to have finally found a recipe that’s corn syrup free :D :D
So glad you found the recipe Cassie! I just don’t like the sickeningly sweet taste that comes from HFCS so this recipe is perfect. I hope you and your husband enjoy it!
I made this on saturday, it had excellent flavor. It just seemed like too much of the filling got crispy. I think its because I have a convection oven. I think I’m going to bake it at 350 the entire time instead of adjusting the temperature.
Hi Karen, yes a convection oven requires cooking at a lower temperature for a shorter period of time, because it cooks things a lot more quickly than a regular oven.
The directions I have with the convection seems to take just as long to cook – my 2 questionable attempts have lead me back to ‘regular’ oven cooking. =)
Did I see that word ‘wholesome’ used in your description of this pie?? =) brown sugar, white sugar, butter… hmm, not ‘wholesome’ but definitely delicious!
Made this for Thanksgiving this year. This pie is good…but very different…it was crunchy/crispy with a similar texture to a praline, but it had an amazing flavor…when I make it again I will 1.5 the recipe to make it a bit thicker and dense.
Hi! this pie looks beautiful!
Sadly, i can´t find Pecans here in my country so i was wondering if i could make this pie with walnuts instead of pecans. Do you think it will taste bitter or something?
Thanks :)
Hi Valentina, I’ve never tried this recipe with anything except pecans, but I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work with another nut! I’m sure walnuts would work fine. Hope you like it!
Just made this today. Haven’t tasted it yet but smells amazing. Just wanted to mention that I was worried I wouldn’t have enough filling as mentioned in comments so I increased the filling ingredients a bit and as it turns out I ended up with far too much and it puffed up too much during cooking from being too filled. I’m sure it will tasted great, just affected presentation a bit.
This is listed under Paleo pies!! NOT!!!! Too much sugar and butter and it also said the best pie crust! Ha you buy it. This sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Christine, I presume wherever you saw this listed was meant to link to this recipe: https://bakerita.com/paleo-pecan-pie/. Hope you have a good Thanksgiving.
the pie was excellent and even better than the karo syrup versions. It’s not quite as gooey but is just flavorful with the brown butter being the key. I followed the recipe and yielded the perfect size 9″ deep dish store bought crust.
So thrilled you enjoyed it, Sharon! Thanks for the feedback :)
Love this!!!
So glad you’re loving it!