When I was growing up, it was MawMaw’s heart’s desire to serve everyone’s favorite dish for holiday meals. Of course, everyone had a different favorite dish. MawMaw was undaunted by this. She started cooking a week early beginning with the pies, freezing them until the holiday morning when she would pop them in the oven to finish baking them.

Because autumn is pecan season down here in the Bayou State, I thought I would bake a pecan pie with all of those nuts that Norm and I recently gathered and shelled.

Following is MawMaw’s recipe, but I substitute maple syrup for the light corn syrup for a twist on the traditional pie, and I use 3 cups of pecans. These changes make a denser filling (my preference).

Yield: 6-8 slices

Ingredients:

3/4 cup light corn syrup (or maple syrup, my preference)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first five ingredients; then fold in the pecans.

Pour the pecans into a basic pie crust.

Flute or press a decorative edge on the crust. MawMaw always used a fork edge on a pecan pie, so that’s what I do.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Crust should be golden and pecans should not begin to turn dark brown. Remove from oven and cool.

Slice and serve with a dollop of chantilly (French whipped cream!).

To make chantilly, whip one pint of heavy whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar. (You can add an optional teaspoon of vanilla, but I don’t because I like the simple flavor of the cream.) Whip for about 5 minutes until stiff peaks form – so easy and so delicious. Oh, if you have your pecan pie with a cup of coffee, plop some chantilly on the coffee, too!