Pecan Pie
The following is a variation on a recipe from John Thorne’s book Outlaw Cook and is preceded by several pages on his search for the perfect pecan pie. He concluded that because the recipe is so simple it is amenable to infinite variation and all you can do is hone it to your own palate. He also spent a great deal of time and energy researching pre-corn syrup sugars, which 19th century recipes would have used, which is how he ended up using golden syrup, but if you can find cane syrup you could use that instead. I used Karo syrup because I had it.
Ingredients:
1 well-packed cup brown sugar
2/3 cup dark Karo syrup
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tbs Khaluha
4 Tbs butter
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups roasted pecan pieces and halves
9-inch unbaked pie shell
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large saucepan, heat the brown sugar, syrup and butter to the boiling point. Stirring constantly and scraping back any foam that clings to the side of the pan, let this mixture boil for about 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat and let cool.
- In a separate bowl, you beat the eggs until creamy.
- When the boiled syrup has cooled, beat in the eggs, Khalua, heavy cream, salt and pecans.
- Pour into the unbaked pie shell.
- Bake for about 50 minutes
- Remove from oven. The pie should not quiver when shook. Cool on a wire rack.