First of all, I recognize that this point in the week is typically a Sunday Cookout day, not a Dessert day. But our usual Sunday cookout was preempted this week by visiting family – and, I should add, visiting family who treated LeeLee and me to dinner – so I don’t have much to report on that front. What I do have to report on is the double dose of pecan pie that has given the house a wonderful aroma and has led me to show amazing self-restraint (if I do say so) by not digging in to one of them by the fistful as they cool on the counter.
I can’t believe I haven’t brought you this pecan pie recipe before. It comes from LeeLee’s grandmother Hazel, and it’s by far one of the best dessert recipes in my arsenal. And it’s so very easy to make – a bonus when you’re short on time but have promised to deliver two pies to church tomorrow!
The detailed recipe is below, but the crux of the matter is thusly: Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and then cream them together until they’re fluffy. Then add a bottle of Karo syrup, a pinch of salt, six eggs, and two cups of pecans – letting everything blend together nicely before adding the nuts – and then pour the wonderful results into two pie crusts. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so, and you’re golden!
Whenever I make this pecan pie recipe, I picture Grandma Hazel whipping up the same dessert in her kitchen. Now, I never knew Hazel – she passed away about two decades ago, long before LeeLee and I met – but through this recipe I have such a strong mental image of how she talked, moved, cooked. Though I’ve never heard her voice, I imagine it to be sturdy, authoritative, yet kind, with a North Carolina lilt to it. And her pecan pies? Well. I imagine them to be fantastic: silky smooth, teeming with flavor, just the right amount of sweet and salty.
Isn’t it funny how all it takes is a recipe to feel closer to someone you’ve never met? C’mon, we all do it, whether it’s an affinity for the Pioneer Woman or a kinship with a long-lost relative. Just reading recipes written in Hazel’s longhand makes me feel like I know her, like we would’ve been friends. Perhaps, through her pecan pie, we already are friends. Isn’t that a lovely thought?
What recipes bring out those sorts of feelings for you? Spill the beans in the comments.
Meantime, here’s the recipe!
GRANDMA HAZEL’S PECAN PIE
Makes two pies
What you’ll need:
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 bottle Karo or other dark corn syrup
1 pinch salt
6 eggs
2 cups pecan halves
2 pie shells
Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer or large bowl until fluffy. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add in the bottle of corn syrup and a pinch of salt until combined. Next, add the eggs, one a time, ensuring each one is fully integrated into the batter as you go.
Add the pecan halves and stir gently to combine. Then pour the batter evenly into two pie shells and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes (start watching the pies at 40 minutes and don’t let them go past about 50!). The pecan pie filling will usually rise pretty high and still be a little moist, but no matter. Take them out of the oven to cool and they’ll sink down and firm up in no time.
Slice into the pie and enjoy! And lift a fork to Hazel when you do.
:)