Pecan Pie
A sugar-and-egg custard studded with pecans — pulled before it sets too firm to stay silky.
Makes 1 9-inch pie · Prep 20 min · Bake 50 min
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 Basic pie pastry dough, one disc
Filling
- 1 cup Corn syrup or golden syrup
- 1/2 cup Brown sugar, packed
- 3 tbsp Butter, melted
- 3 Eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 cups Pecan halves
Instructions
Shell
- Roll the pastry out and fit into a 9-inch pie pan, crimping the edges. Chill.
Prep
- Heat the oven to 165°C (330°F).
Filling
- Whisk the syrup, brown sugar, and melted butter together, then whisk in the eggs, vanilla, and salt until smooth.
Assemble
- Arrange the pecans in the chilled shell and pour the filling over, allowing the nuts to float and rearrange themselves.
Bake
- Bake until the edges are set and the centre has a distinct, slow-moving jiggle across its whole width, not just the middle. (Tip: This filling has no starch buffering the eggs, so overbaking goes straight to a weepy, grainy texture rather than just a firmer set. Pull it slightly underdone by feel.)
Cool
- Cool completely before slicing — it continues firming substantially as it cools.
Tips
- Filling wept liquid after slicing: Overbaked. Without starch to protect the egg proteins, pushing past the setting point causes the custard to separate slightly, releasing liquid — there's no fixing a baked batch, but pull the next one a few minutes earlier.
- Toast the pecans first: A few minutes in a dry pan before they go into the shell deepens their flavour considerably against the sweet filling, the same principle as toasting nuts for any other dessert in this cookbook.