Southern Pecan Pie Without Corn Syrup

Sweet, sticky, and nutty, this recipe for Southern Pecan Pie Without Corn Syrup is just the way the dessert should be.

How do you pronounce pecan?

Did you ever notice that there is more than one way to say the word pecan?

Do you say it pee-KAN or puh-KAHN?

Or maybe a cross between the two?

Old fashioned southern pecan pie

Many believe that this sticky-sweet, classic southern dessert was first crafted by French settlers in New Orleans after the Native Americans introduced them to the pecan, which is native to Mexico and the southern regions of America. 

On the other hand, the corn syrup company Karo claims that the first pecan pie was made by the wife of one of their employees in the early 1900’s.

The scales of truth seem to tip slightly in the favor of the corn syrup company, because pecan pie didn’t start appearing in cookbooks until the 1920’s. And, if you take a look at any collection of pecan pie recipes, you’ll find that the majority of them call for Karo corn syrup.

That means that at least, Karo’s promotion of the pie is what skyrocketed its popularity.  

Pecan pie vs chess pie

What you do find prior to the 1900’s, however, is the Southern American tradition of chess pie.

Chess pie is a sweet and eggy custard pie, also known as brown sugar pie. And, this pie can be traced back to the 17th century.  

So, it is possible the first pecan pies were simply a traditional chess pie with pecans tossed in. (Pecans that may very well have been introduced to settlers in the southern region of the States by the Native Americans.) 

I guess we’ll never know.

Pecan pie without corn syrup

Whether you want to believe that pecan pie was an invention of a corn syrup company or not, we are here today to tell you that pecan pie DOES NOT have to be made with corn syrup.

Honestly, any mixture of sugars or sugar syrups will do to make pecan pie without corn syrup.

Today, we’re sharing a recipe for a pecan pie made predominately with brown sugar.

We picked brown sugar because the deep, molasses-caramel flavor of brown sugar is the exact deep and caramel-y flavor that we search for in a good pecan pie.

How do you like your pecan pie?

The sugary custard that makes up the filling of pecan pie can be executed a number of ways.

Some people like their pecan pie gooey and sticky, while others like their pecan pie firm and nutty.

We fall in the latter camp.

Don’t give us a pecan pie that oozes from the crust, sticks to your teeth, and tastes only of sugar.

We prefer a well-set pecan pie that is just sweet enough to be decadent and boasts an extremely pronounced nuttiness.

So, that is the pie we are sharing with you today: lightly sweet, wonderfully nutty, truly satisfying. 

Our pecan pie recipe with no corn syrup

To make our pecan pie without corn syrup, we start with an homemade par-baked pie crust. 

You could purchase a store bought crust (either pre-baked or just the dough and then pre-bake it yourself) for this. However, we do provide you the directions to make your own butter pie crust from scratch in the recipe below. 

Pie crust making is truly not as intimidating as you may think. And a butter crust is quite forgiving and the best one to start with.

To make the filling for this pecan pie, we make a simple custard base by beating some eggs and sugar until fluffy.

To that we add milk and butter, and a little flour to help the filling set up nicely. 

This simple custard base mixture gets poured into the pre-baked pie crust, over a generous layer of chopped pecans. 

When you pour the filling into the pie crust, the pecans will shift a bit. So, if you want to decorate the top of your pie with some whole pecans, you will want to arrange these pieces carefully over top of the custard. 

Then, you very carefully transfer the pie to the oven to bake away to golden, carmely goodness. 

Can I make pecan pie ahead of time? 

A nice thing about pecan pie is that it definitely can be made ahead of time. 

In fact, the pie can be made up to 2-3 days ahead of time and refrigerated, covered, until you are ready to eat it.

Before serving, simply remove the pie from the refrigerator 1 hour before you would like to eat it so that it can come to room temperature.

 

Note: The instructions in this recipe were updated in November 2016 to make the pie even better! Enjoy!