The Pecan Pie I Make Every Thanksgiving (Everyone Asks for the Recipe)

Hey, Sam here from Sugar Spun Run, and today I'm showing you how I make my favorite pecan pie. All right, this recipe goes wild every year for me around Thanksgiving, and it makes sense because it's a really good classic pecan pie, but just with a really extraordinary depth of flavor. I filmed a video for this one years ago back in my old kitchen, and I messed up doing it. I told people to put a cup of butter in. That video's obviously not been usable, and it's about time we redo it. I do make my own pie crust. I will link to my favorite sour cream pie crust in the description, but today, I'm actually experimenting with a new all-butter crust. We'll see how that does, but you'll wanna go ahead and roll this out into a nice, neat circle, as neat as you can, and place this into a 9 1⁄2-inch pie plate. Go ahead and flute the edges. Pierce the bottom all over with a fork, and then pop that in the fridge while you prepare your filling. Now, you're going to want to get your oven preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and you are also going to want to toast your pecans. Toasting them is going to give them just a much deeper, better flavor than not toasting them. So, I always start with pecan halves. They're not chopped. Just layer them onto a baking sheet, and I pop them in the oven for five minutes, give them a quick stir, toast them for another five minutes longer, and then I'll let them cool before I go any further with them. Once they're cooled, I like to chop them up into pieces. So, chopping your pecans is optional, and arguably, the pie looks a little bit prettier if you don't chop them, but it's harder to cut, and I think it's less enjoyable to eat if the pecans are whole. So, you can see I've just chopped mine up into smaller pieces. You might have a couple whole pecans in there, but this is just easier to eat. We don't need these yet, though. What we do need is three large eggs. So, we will go ahead and crack these into our mixing bowl. This is my first ingredient. I'm going to crack it right in the bowl. I'll be mixing it in. Chickens are starting to slow down with their egg-laying as the weather gets colder. Okay, we're going to want to whisk these eggs until they're lightened in color a little bit and a little foamy, just usually like 30 seconds of vigorous whisking. Okay, so once these are, you know, a little bit foamy on top, lightened in color, we will add some brown sugar. This is one cup or 200 grams of firmly packed brown sugar. Next, we're going to use 2 1⁄3 cup of dark corn syrup. I like to take a moment to remind everyone that corn syrup is not the same as high-fructose corn syrup, and it is a very classic ingredient in pecan pie. I don't have a substitute for you that I can say, you know, for a fact works well in this recipe. So, I do recommend using dark corn syrup. Next, we will add 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Things should be starting to smell pretty good. And we're also going to add a little bit of salt. This is 1⁄4 teaspoon of table salt. And we'll just briefly stir everything again until it's nicely combined. Whisk it. And then finally, we have 1⁄4 cup of unsalted butter. This should be melted. It shouldn't be super hot to the touch. I like to wait to add it so it doesn't like cook our eggs or anything like that. You know, they've been nicely tempered with our other ingredients. So, while I'm whisking, I'm just going to drizzle in that butter. This is 1⁄4 cup, four tablespoons, 57 grams. I misspoke on that one and ruined the first video I ever did on this recipe. Finally, our pecans. Remember, I like them chopped. How you like them is up to you. This is 2 1⁄4 cups, 250 grams of pecans. We'll give them a quick stir. All right, let me grab my pie plate. All right, I have my pie out of the fridge, or my pie plate. And before I add anything to it, I'm going to make a quick egg wash. Easy to do. Crack an egg. Just add a splash of water. Whisk this together vigorously. The egg wash isn't a huge deal. If you miss it, it does make the pie crust look a little bit prettier. So I like to use it. Don't forget this step. It's not going to ruin your pie. When I first published this recipe, I didn't even do the egg wash. I'm just going to do a quick, even brushing the bottom sides and edges. I'm a little nervous to see how this pie crust turns out. As I mentioned, it's a new one. I tried another variation yesterday for the pie that I'll be cutting into today, and it wasn't as pretty as I hoped. So the filling's the same, but the pie crust, it's not my prettiest work. We'll give everything a quick stir one more time. And then just pour this into the pie plate. Now with pies, I pretty much always bake them on a baking sheet, just in case they spill. And honestly, just because it makes it a lot easier to get them in and out of the oven. So I just pop it on a baking sheet, and then this is going to go to the center rack of our 350 degree Fahrenheit oven. So the pie is going to bake for 45 to 55 minutes in total, but I like to check it at the 25 minute mark and just make sure the crust isn't browning too much. And then I'll kind of keep an eye on it. If the crust is getting too brown, just use a pie shield if you have one, or just tent the sides with a little bit of foil. Then at the 45 to 55 minute mark, it should be finished baking. A good way to tell is that the pie is completely set. It shouldn't jiggle at all if you move it. If you notice any light cracking, that's also a really good sign it's done. I like to pull mine out before that happens. All right, once the pecan pie has finished baking, it's going to need to cool, of course, before you cut into it. I recommend a minimum of two hours, but usually I'll make the pie a day in advance and I'll cut into it the next day. And it's fine to sit that time. The flavor even develops a little bit more. So this one is still super hot. So I'm going to slide this out of the way and we'll grab my pie that I prepped yesterday. That's funky experimental crust. Today's went a little bit better, but that won't affect the taste of our pie. It's great on its own, but you could also serve it with some vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream. First cut is always the messiest. So we'll see how she looks. That messy enough that I'm going to cut you another slice. Truly nothing in life makes me as nervous as cutting into a pie or a cake on camera. At this point, stick with my sour cream pie crust. This probably tastes amazing, but it's a little bit funky, probably a technique issue. If you try this, I would love to know what you think. I really do always love hearing from you. That was a good pie. Third is the nut, the joke, right? Pecan joke? Yeah. Okay. And then it's pecans. Fourth teaspoon. Oh no. You are a little buttery. Nothing is working for me today. All right, give me a second. I got to figure out what to do with all this pie.