Buttery Pecan Pie

Last week I went home for Thanksgiving and I was given the wonderful job of bringing Apple and Pumpkin Pie to the big dinner. I was in hog-heaven because there is nothing I love more than baking pie! If I could professionally make pie for a living, I'd totally do it. There is nothing more satisfying than rolling out, filling and baking a perfectly baked pie with a golden brown and flaky crust. Pure heaven.

I made a horrible mistake of wearing jeans with a belt on Thanksgiving. Those pants had absolutely no give to them whatsoever and my attempt to totally stuff my face was very difficult due to the lack of stretchy pants. All throughout dinner I was really jealous of Dusty's adorably pregnant cousin, Raquel, who was wearing stretchy jeans. I need to invest in pregnancy pants for next Thanksgiving like that one episode of Friends when Joey is wearing Phoebe's pregnancy pants! HA!

What does your family do?
Do you dress up for Thanksgiving or wear your sweats for the big meal?

Dusty and I also made the mistake by not taking home any leftovers! How were we suppose to make turkey sandwiches without leftovers???? As a result we decided to make a smaller Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and invited Dusty's family over for Thanksgiving dinner: Part 2. It was also an excuse to finally use our wedding china!

For our smaller Thanksgiving dinner we roasted an 8 pound turkey (glorified chicken, it was so small!), sage stuffing, creamy chive mashed potatoes and of course I had to bake another pie. Oh darn! ;)

I've had my fair share of Pecan Pie, but Julie's recipe (my MIL) for Pecan Pie is by far the most buttery, creamy and heavenly Pecan Pie I've ever had. I believe the secret to it's wonderfulness involves the ratio of dark to light corn syrup. Most recipes call for just light corn syrup, but I think the little bit of molasses in the dark corn syrup takes this pie places.

Buttery Pecan Pie
{Serves 8}

-1 unbaked Pie Crust
-3 Eggs
-2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
-1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
-1/3 cup melted Butter (salted)
-3/4 cup Light Corn Syrup
-1/4 cup Dark Corn Syrup
-1-1/2 cups Pecan Pieces (or Halves)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F).

Mix the eggs, sugar, melted butter, light corn syrup and dark corn syrup in a mixer over low speed until just combined. Fold the pecan pieces into the pie filling mixture. Pour the pecan pie filling onto the unbaked pie crust.

Protect the crust with aluminum foil or pie crust shield to prevent over-browning or burning. Bake for 50 minutes until the filling is dark golden brown and set.

Place the pie on a cooling rack and allow it to settle to room temperature for several hours. Serve with whipped cream and enjoy!

Recipe By: Julie Ahrens