A good Southern pecan pie recipe is an essential dessert!
We all have desserts we make frequently, ones our families most enjoy. In American households, pies are a beloved standard dessert. Outside of the South, apple, lemon meringue, berry, pumpkin and chocolate pies are old and familiar friends. I'm a native of the West coast, and until I lived in the South, I'd never had a real Southern pecan pie. The pecan pies I'd tasted had been ho-hum in both taste and texture - rather stingy on the pecans and heavy, even unpleasant on a gelatinous-textured corn syrup filling. Then, at a traditional Southern restaurant, I was blessed with my first real taste of pecan pie. So began my search for the authentic pecan pie recipe, in order to duplicate this magnificent dessert at home.
After scouring the web and every Southern recipe book I could find, I came up with the composite, quintessential pecan pie ingredients fit for a King.
The crust is usually a flaky pastry, made with plenty of butter cut into the flour. Ice water and a light hand with the dough assures extra flakiness.
The filling ingredients are what makes or breaks the pecan pie recipe. For a nine-inch pie, you must use at least a pound and a half of freshly shelled pecans. Light corn syrup is added in a quantity just sufficient to hold the pecans together. A shot of fine aged Bourbon completes the ingredient lineup of the perfect Southern pecan pie.
Being a West coaster, my final concoction had to include chocolate in the mix. In the South, I gathered the impression that a chocolate pecan pie recipe was just a tad on the heretical side from a Southern culinary standpoint. Nonetheless, when I bake my chocolate pecan pie, my non-Southern friends and family rave at the taste. So rich is this pecan pie recipe, a nine-inch pie will serve 12 people. Rare is the individual who can eat a second slice. This heavenly pie needs no adornment. It's truly a standalone dessert.
Although it's certainly not dieter's fare, you only live once, and everyone deserves to taste, if only a single time (ha-ha), this veritable Queen of desserts. Perhaps because it's so filling and sweet, the pecan pie recipe is usually employed for the cold weather times of year. Personally, I could eat chocolate pecan pie in the middle of summer, although it would have to be in the cool of morning, with a cup of coffee.
If you'd like to experience a slice of heaven on earth, get a good Southern pecan pie recipe. It's a keeper!
