15 November 2019

Pecan Walnut Pie

A few days ago, the subject of pecan pie came up in comments on a blog post about a pecan tree that stood in my late mother's back yard in North Carolina. MA had grafted and planted the tree there in the 1970s. That tree died last winter, about a year after MA passed on. That seems to me to be an odd coincidence. Here is a photo of that pecan tree that I took in May 2003, when Walt and I spent a month in N.C. before flying off to start a new life in Saint-Aignan. My mother (Mary Allen) and Walt are in the picture.



Yesterday I decided to make a pecan pie following my mother's recipe. She and her sister self-published three cookbooks in the 1990s, focusing on local specialties. They probably sold 10,000 or more books in gift, souvenir, and museum shops up and down the North Carolina coast. Her pecan pie recipe is in the first of those three books (The Cooking Ladies' Best Sellers).


The problem I faced was that I didn't have any pecans left. I had brought back a lot of shelled-out pecans in 2018, but we finished them all last winter. Never mind — I happened to have a big bag of shelled walnut meats in the freezer, thanks to our friend C. and M. who live across the river from us here in the Loire Valley. They generously gave us a good quantity of cerneaux de noix (nut meats) as a gift a few months ago. Maybe I'm just chauvinistic, or maybe I'm just right, but I've always thought pecans have a sweeter, more pleasant taste than walnuts.

By the way, in the Carolinas, we called walnuts "English walnuts." In Québec French, they are called noix de Grenoble (noix, pronouced [nwah], means walnut in French). Anyhow, walnuts can stand in for pecans in a pinch. I've looked into planting a pecan tree here in the Saint-Aignan area, but from what I've read it seems that our summers are not hot enough for them and they won't produce pecans without a long period of hot weather. On the left is my walnut pie ready to go into the oven. Below is the finished pie.

Mary Allen's Pecan Pie

Blend together thoroughly:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup Karo syrup*
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Then stir in:
1½ cups pecans

Pour the mixture into:
1 unbaked pie shell

Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 50 to 55 minutes.

Test for doneness by sticking a skewer or the point of a clean knife into the filling.
When it comes out clean, the pie is cooked. Serve warm or cold.

* This pie is very sweet, and I don't even put as much sugar in the mixture as the recipe calls for. If you're not American, you might not know what Karo syrup is. It's light-colored, high-fructose corn syrup and Karo is the brand name. For substitutes, see this web page. Another note: I made the pie with pâte sablée, ("sugar crust") and you can get the recipe here.

20 comments:

  1. Your mother's pecan tree is enormous! What a shame it has died. It will certainly be missed in many ways. This recipe sounds very good. And not that complicated to make. I wonder who is making the pies for our Thanksgiving dinner this year.....

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    1. I used to have a recipe for pecan pie made with maple syrup, but it disappeared a while back. I think it resembled this one. Worth a try...

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    2. Thanks for posting your Mom's recipe!! Perfect timing. My mother makes pecan pies with real maple syrup every year, and I seem to be one of the few in the camp of "not being crazy about it." I think it turns out sweeter than Karo, which is what we grew up with in pecan pies. We'll give this one a go and think of you on turkey-day.

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  2. "but I've always thought pecans have a sweeter, more pleasant taste than walnuts."
    I agree... for me coffee and walnut go together in a cake, tho'.... I once tried coffee and pecan cake and, whilst it wasn't bad... it wasn't what my mouth and brain were expecting.
    But pecan pies, like this one, are very moreish....
    though you didn't say how it compares with the real thing?
    Luckily LIDL do big packets of American pecans... pâte sablée is in packets pre-rolled everywhere, but far too thin for my liking... I use three packets for apple and/or cherry pies, two for the base and one for the top... I can't make shortcrust myself, my hands are too warm... my F-i-L could, though... he had huge hands with very long fingers that were always cold.... I feel a pie coming on.
    T&L's Golden Syrup is too thick for this, so I might use one cup, and half a cup of maple syrup.
    I don't mind making a big pie... I know from experience that this freezes well.
    Thank you for posting this...

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    1. See above, Tim, for pecan pie with maple syrup. You might be able just to thin some golden syrup 50/50 or 60/40 for your pie, but maple syrup is definitely good with pecans. Pecan waffles, for example, with maple syrup and melted butter.

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    2. I was trying to avoid the temptation of using only maple syrup... one of our local bakeries in Leeds used to do a very dangerous pecan&maple feuilette/puff pastry "sausage" roll... bit like a short torsade. Too easy to eat too many!

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  3. In my opinion, and just like you, I think pecans are definitely sweeter than wallnuts, and they have also a different taste.


    I like maple syrup, but I don't know how its taste fits with that of pecans. Like Tim, I thought about treacle, Golden Syrup, which has a lighter taste. We used to buy it at WHSmith on rue de Rivoli in Paris. I have heard of Karo, but never knowinly tasted it.

    You forgot to mention Collette in the picture !

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  4. Mmmmmm, yummm... Pecan Pie is a favorite (but, I don't eat it very often). My mom occasionally would make pecan pie, but she always put about half the sugar, and it still tasted great.

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    1. American desserts are often over-the-top sweet.

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  5. Glad you posted the photo of your mother's pecan tree- good shade and good eats! Pecan trees grow well around here, but I've not seen them in KY which has soil like yours. I have a couple of your MA's cookbooks which I have enjoyed. I grew up eating mostly walnuts, but pecans are really the best. I've lived down South most of my life now lol.

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    1. I didn't realize you wouldn't have pecan trees in Kentucky. In North Carolina, maybe they only grow along the coast, where the weather is milder than upstate.

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  6. What a beautiful tree! I like walnuts, but pecans have a luxurious flavor and texture.

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    1. Walnuts have a sort of tannic character that pecans don't have. Almost metallic. I'm going to have to go the supermarket Tim mentioned and buy a bag of pecans to see what they're like here. I think they grow them in North Africa, and I was surprised to read yesterday that Mexico produces as many or even more pecans than the U.S. does.

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    2. The pecans I get from Costco come from Mexico.

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    3. Do you remember how much they cost per pound or kilo, Chris?

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  7. Agreed, walnuts and pecans have different tastes. Walnuts are drier, somehow. I didn't know about all the Karo syrup, which may be why I didn't like pecan pie the couple of times I've tried it. But with maple syrup, it might be OK, and pecans by themselves are good to eat.
    That was a lovely tree.

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    1. The house next door to my mother's in Morehead City has an even bigger pecan tree in its back yard. That tree was already enormous when I was a boy, 60 years or so ago. It's amazing that it's never (to my knowlege) been damaged by hurricane-force winds.

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  8. Testing to see if i can comment.

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    1. It works! Did I ever thank you for the videos about making couscous grain? I haven't tried it yet, but I might one day.

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