Pie Like You
I like pecan pie. I mean, it took me a long time, and it’s not my first choice—but let’s be honest, it’s pretty darn good. It might be YOUR favorite, I understand.
So I thought I would add a twist, or two, to make it MY favorite.
This award-winning (or at least it will be when you enter it in your family’s pie making contest this Thanksgiving), has all the classic pecan pie elements: brown sugar, eggs, butter and plenty of pecans. I added a little fresh ginger and toasted coconut to intensify the perfection!
I don’t think those are unreasonable twists. And now, THIS pie is my favorite!!!
(Don’t forget the whipped cream…uhm, best part!)
Tip: Make sure you use unsweetened coconut (found at most grocery stores or a health food store). Since pecan pie is inherently sweet already, using sweetened coconut could put it over the top—in maybe a bad way!
- ½ recipe Perfect Pie Crust
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2/3 cup light corn syrup
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- 2½ tsp grated peeled ginger
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans plus halves for top
- 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut toasted to golden brown
- Sweetened whipped cream
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Heat oven to 350ºF. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pie crust dough into a 12-inch round, pressing edges together if cracking. Fold in half and transfer to a 9-inch pie plate; unfold and gently lift (do not stretch) dough into place. Trim edges to ¼-inch overhang and tuck under just inside pie plate for an edge. Crimp as desired. Prick bottom and sides of dough with a fork about 30 times and freeze until just firm, about 15 min.
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Meanwhile, whisk together sugars, eggs, corn syrup, butter, ginger and salt until combined well. Stir in nuts and coconut; pour into crust. Arrange nut halves over top.
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Bake until set, about 1 hr 10 min. If crust browns too quickly, cover with foil. Let cool completely before serving. Serve with whipped cream.
Recipe by Tara Bench
Originally published in
Ladies’ Home Journal Nov 2008
Photography Quentin Bacon
Food Styling Susan Vajaranant
Prop Styling Pamela Duncan Silver
Pecan pie IS my favorite and, as usual, I’ll be using it along with my other favorite Tara Thanksgiving recipes next week. LOVE that you’re doing this blog!
Oh awesome Val! I hope you love it!
Beautiful!
Thank you!!
Read at your own risk: I tend to ramble.
Last year for Thanksgiving and Christmas I made a cranberry pecan pie that my mother really liked – so much so that she requested I make it again this year. As much as for the taste of it, she liked the pie because Mom cares about how her food looks. The cranberries added a bit of tartness to cut through the sweet and festive color to cut through the monochrome.
It is my lot in life that I have restless hands and I am always tinkering. While I am eager to please my fan base of one person (thanks Mom), I also want to try on a new shirt, so to speak. So, as a trial run for Thanksgiving, I took your recipe and threw cranberries in it. Everybody wins. I think it worked, but I have to run it past the family! It’s why I try things on for size before taking them to the table. Ginger + cranberry + coconut works for me. Apologies if I have corrupted your efforts at global recipe domination.
Thanks for sharing!
P.S., I think I still need to work on my crust. This one was a bit tougher than the last.
Dallin that’s awesome! Such a great idea. How many cranberries did you add? Was there any adjustment to the baking time? Do share!!
And one of the reasons you get a tough crust with my recipe is too much liquid. That may or may not have been the issue with yours, but perhaps it was a factor.
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