Shani's No Corn Syrup Bourbon Pecan Pie

I make a pie. One pie. I am very good at this pie. The rest of the pies are a challenge for me. This is my Bourbon Pecan Pie, and I make it every year regardless of where I spend Thanksgiving. I claim this recipe as my own because over the years I’ve not only learned how to make it by heart but I’ve also learned how to NOT BURN IT yay me.

I first baked this pie when I went looking for a way to make pecan pie without corn syrup which grosses me out. I discovered that maple syrup is a wonderful if not better substitute. I’ve been making minor tweaks to the recipe ever since, but the version below is in my opinion the ideal. I encourage you to mess around with modifications of your own. Maybe you add chocolate at some point. Perhaps some cinnamon. Maybe you run out of maple syrup halfway and substitute honey like I had to one year. Who knows! This pie is your oyster. And also your pie.

Fun fact: The pie pictured above does not actually contain pecans because I realized AFTER MAKING THE PIE FILLING that I had no pecans. Shhh….those are walnuts! You can do your best and still make amazing pie, is what I’m saying. Ok I’m going to start the recipe now because I’m starting to go on and on like a food blogger.

Crust: You can 100% use store bought crust for this, I will not be mad at you, and also I will not see you do it. I like to make my own crust using Alison Roman’s pie crust recipe, but literally any pie crust recipe you google will work just fine. Don’t stress out about crust is what I’m saying. I’m going to try making a vegan pie crust this year because a friend of mine can’t have butter, and I’ll report back on that experiment.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup maple syrup (any kind will do, I purchase a big jug from Trader Joe’s every holiday season)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 3 eggs

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 2 tablespoons flour

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you don’t have this, don’t stress about it, this is a very sweet pie anyway due to the syrup)

• 1 1/2 cups (don’t stress too much about measurements) pecans. I like to process mine in my mini chopper first because I like them in tiny pieces, but you can even leave them whole if you like.

• 1 healthy shot of bourbon (I do not drink bourbon, but I always have a bottle in my home, specifically for this pie)

Pre-heat your oven to 375. I par-bake my crust for about 5 minutes before I put the filling in. This helps prevent a soggy crust later on. Then put the filling into the crust and bake it for about an hour, but start checking on it at 50 minutes or so if your oven tends to run too hot. It’s ready when the center has puffed up but is still a little jiggly. If the pie top cracks, it cracks. It’ll still taste delicious, I promise. Let the pie cool COMPLETELY before cutting into it. The center will level out and the pie will firm up. (You want this to happen.)

Note for my single fam: If I’m baking this pie for just me, I’ll freeze any leftovers in one-slice servings, so that I can easily have pie whenever I want without having to bake a whole actual pie.

Enjoy, and happy holidays!