I think that life is a lot like pie. What we fill it with will determine how sweet and enjoyable it will be for others and ourselves. What we fill it with determines the course of our life.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Spending time with good people, celebrating our Savior’s birth, making friends delicious food, and a lot of dirty dishes (o.k. that I could live without the dishes).

Pecan pie is an overly sweet, crunchy, gooey centered wonder that contains nearly as many calories per slice as an entire Christmas meal dinner plate mounded high with ham or turkey and all the trimmings. It’s an over-the-top end, to an over-the-top meal. And, a good pecan is worth every calorie.

Confession: Pecan Pie used to be my enemy. I burned them, made them too sweet, and then there was the soupy one. So, I quit making them for a few years. But, every holiday my husband asked if we were having pecan pie. So, I gave in and started trying to figure out something that really is easy but I had become intimidated by.

A bottle of Karo syrup stayed on my grandmother’s kitchen counter throughout the months of November and December.  We all knew that was what made the “candy with a crust”. But, GASP!  I find it too sweet. So, I decided to cut the Karo in half and supplement the other half with Maple Syrup. I also learned more about cooking through trial and error. The ones I thought were not too great still got eaten up at my house.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large eggs
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ stick (4 Tbsp) butter, softened
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup light corn syrup (I use Karo)
• ½ cup maple syrup or honey
• 1½ cups pecan halves
• 1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust, homemade or store bought

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Beat the eggs with the mixer until fluffy, about 8 minutes. I know, seems like forever, but yes, 8 minutes.
3. In another mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and syrups. Gently fold this into the eggs. Gently fold in the pecans. Pour the filling into the piecrust.
4. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the filling is set and no longer wobbly in the center.
5. Let cool completely before cutting.

HIGHLY recommend making in a cast iron skillet.  It is just cuter.

xoxo- The Park Wife