Thanksgiving "Best Maple Pecan Pie You'll Ever Eat" Recipe

Easy to Make Holiday Pie Desserts

M.S. Beltran
M.S. Beltran, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 14, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
This maple pecan pie has deep, rich flavors without corn syrup! It sets and slices beautifully, and is easy to make even for cooks with little pie making experience.
Category
Desserts
Cuisine
American
Main Ingredients
Baking
Occasion
Thanksgiving
Prep Time
 15 min
Cook Time
 45 min
Total Time
1 hrs  

Ingredients

Serves 8
1 uncooked pie crust
1-1/2cup chopped pecans
1-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup water
3 lg eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp maple extract
3 tbsp heavy cream
varies Garnish (optional, see below)
Print Recipe

Directions for Thanksgiving "Best Maple Pecan Pie You'll Ever Eat" Recipe

1
Prepare
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare your pie crust in a 9 inch pan, or use a store-bought uncooked crust.
2
Toast the Pecans
Heat a frying pan over medium high heat. Throw in the pecans. Stir or toss well every minute or so for four minutes to toast them. Pour them into the pie crust. Shake it a little to distribute them evenly.
3
Make Brown Sugar Syrup
Mix water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
4
Mix Ingredients
Crack eggs into a mixing bowl. Add vanilla, cream and maple extracts and whisk until combined. Pour the melted sugar into the mixture in a very slow trickle while whisking constantly. You want to prevent the hot sugar from actually cooking the egg. Keep whisking until all the sugar is in and combined.
5
Putting it In the Crust
Pour the mixture over the pecans until almost to the top edge of the crust. Garnish if desired by arranging some pecan halves on top. Another nice garnish is to roll out extra pie crust, cut leaf shapes and put them around the edges of the crust, slightly overlapping. Honestly, though, I just like the rustic look of the chopped pecans and like to leave it like that.
6
Baking
Put it in the oven and bake for 40 to 50 minutes (depending on oven and depth of pie pan), until the center is set. To tell if it is set, insert a knife and when it comes out clean it is set. You can also gently shake the pie back and forth, and if the center moves around like gelatin, it's not set. When the center stays put, it's set. You can put on a crust shield or put foil strips around the crust edges mid-way through cooking if they start getting too browned.
7
Serving
Allow the pie to cool to at least room temperature before slicing. It's even better if you chill it. Top it with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
Tip
I never met a nut I didn't like, and pecans are at the top of my favorites list, however I always find pecan pies hit-or-miss. I'm not a fan of corn syrup, and most recipes these days seem to call for it. I love the maple flavor, but every recipe I ever tried that used maple syrup resulted in a runny pie that didn't set well, unless I used so little syrup that the flavor was lacking. A little experimentation, and I have come up with a maple flavored pecan pie recipe that has no corn syrup, sets and slices beautifully and has a rich depth to the flavor with the addition of maple extract. Enjoy!

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