Ms. Betty’s Southern Pecan Pie Recipe

The search is over for the perfect pecan pie recipe
Ms. Betty’s Pecan Pie recipe was used for the pies Karen sold at Mississippi farmers markets in the early days of No Time to Cook.
Hint: Browning the butter is probably the most difficult part of this recipe and you can conquer that pretty easy. You know the butter is ready when it has a rich nutty aroma. It’s important not to let it sit in the hot skillet at this point or it will burn. Transfer to a stainless pan to cool, or place the bottom of the skillet in a bath of cool water . Do not pour the hot butter into the egg and sugar mixture, as this will cause the eggs to curdle. Browning the butter is a very important step in the recipe, so don’t skip it thinking you can just stir melted butter into the filling.
For the history and more information on this Southern Pecan Pie recipe click here.
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
45 minutes
Cuisine
Southern
Servings
2 traditional 8″ pies
Ingredients
- 2 - 8″ frozen Traditional pie shells or 16 mini tart shells
- 1 stick salted butter (browned)
- 1 cup light Karo syrup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 beaten eggs
- ½ t lemon juice
- 1 t. pure vanilla (I prefer Molena which I purchase at Mexican grocery
- ⅛ t. salt (1/4 if you use unsalted butter)
- 2 - 2.5 cups broken pecan pieces
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Instructions
- Thaw pie shells and re-crimp edges with a fork or tips of fingers to make them look homemade (optional)
- Brown butter to a nutty brown color (cool slightly)
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees while mixing ingredients.
- Mix Karo, sugar, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, salt, and slightly cooled browned butter.
- Place pie shells on a cookie sheet and cover edges of pie crust with a metal pie protector or crimp pieces of foil around the edges to keep the crust from getting too brown. I do this before I pour in the filling, because if filling drips on pie crust edge, that part of the crust will burn. If making mini tarts, no need to protect crusts, since they bake a little faster than the full size pies and do not get too brown. However, take care not to drip on the crust edge when filling tarts.
- Divide pecans equally between shells
- Divide filling between pie shells. Push pecan pieces down into filling so that all are well coated and evenly distributed in pies
- Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 325 and continue baking 40-45 minutes for large pies and 30-35 minutes for tarts.
- Pies are done when the middle barely shakes and inserted knife comes out pretty clean.
- These pies freezer beautifully so can be prepared way ahead of time. If freezing, cool completely, wrap entire pie with several layers of plastic wrap and then with aluminum foil. These will keep several months in your freezer.