When I was a little girl, my great-aunt Martelle lived on a hill in Mississippi. She had a huge pecan tree in the front yard which towered over the drive to the house. I remember rolling up the hill with my grandparents in my grandfather’s Buick, hearing the sound of pecan shells crushing and popping under the tires.
The pecans were eaten as they fell, plain, or baked into one of the most Southern of Southern delights, pecan pie.
Though my grandmother was a good cook, my Aunt Martelle had a gift. I’m not publicly shaming my Meemaw here, this is a fact she admitted freely. Both women could make one hell of a pecan pie though.
I don’t have Aunt Martelle’s recipe, and my grandmother took hers directly from the back of the Karo syrup bottle. What I’m about to share with you is my recipe, taken from a woman named Prudence Hilburn who wrote a wonderful cookbook called “A Treasury of Southern Baking”. I’ve only changed one small detail to make it “mine”. Prudence and I too, make one hell of a pecan pie.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
1 c. dark brown sugar, packed
1tblsp. all purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 c dark corn syrup
1/2 c light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 tblsp. butter, melted
1 cup pecan halves
1 9 in. pie crust, unbaked
Mix the sugar and flour in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, corn syrup, vanilla, and slowly pour in the melted butter, a little at a time mixing in between each addition so as not to cook the eggs with the warm butter. Add the sugar and flour to the egg mixture and stir until it’s relatively smooth. Place the pecans in the bottom of the pie crust then pour the mixture over the top. Bake for an hour. Allow to cool before serving.
This simple confection means more to me than some regular old dessert. This pie is love. Jen, this is for you. oxox