Source: Stella Parks
Author’s Note: I don’t know how anything so curdled, coagulated, lumpy, and broken can turn out so delicious, but this pie manages to defy the odds. The result is half pie, half candy bar, and 100% delicious.
Yield: 1 9” pie, 8-12 slices
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 C (8 oz) water
- 3 C (21 oz) plain or toasted sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal
- 1 stick (4 oz/113 g) unsalted butter, cold
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract, Scotch, or bourbon
- 2 1/2 C (10 oz) pecan halves, raw
- 1 fully baked 9-inch pie crust
Equipment
- pastry brush
- digital or candy thermometer
- pie crust shield
Directions
- Before starting, place eggs in small bowl, cover with hot tap water, set aside.
- Make caramel: Combine 8 oz (1 cup) water with the sugar and salt in a 3-qt pan over medium heat. Stir with a fork until sugar dissolves and syrup begins to bubble, about 7 mins. Fill a ramekin with water and use the pastry brush to wet the edges of the pot, wherever you see sugar crystals or splashes of syrup. Rewet the brush as needed, “washing” around the sides until totally clean. Be generous – extra water will not hurt the pie filling but sugar crystals will.
- Crank heat to medium high and clip on a digital thermometer. Cook without stirring until syrup is 325F and honey colored. Immediately remove from heat, add butter all at once, and stir with a silicone spatula until foaming subsides. Cool syrup to 200F, about 10 mins, stirring occasionally to ensure it cools at an even rate. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F.
- Whisk eggs and flavoring (vanilla or booze) in a medium bowl until well combined. Fold in pecans. Pour hot butterscotch over egg-pecan mixture and fold with a spatula until pecans are well coated in butterscotch and eggs are mostly absorbed. The butter will seem to pool out of the mixture, and you may notice a few specks of curdled eggs. That’s okay. Really.
- Scrape into prepared crust and don’t worry about trying to spread in an even layer. Bake 30 mins, then cover outer ring of crust with a pie shield. Continue baking about 15 mins until filling is bubbling hot and puffed up. When fully baked, pie will register 210 F in the center.
- Cool at least 2 hours before slicing. Any earlier and the filling will be runny.
- Wrapped in plastic, leftovers will keep 3 days at room temp or a week in the fridge.
Notes
- This recipe depends on an accurate thermometer. Check the temp range on your to make sure it is able to register 335 F, then test its accuracy to by making sure it registers 212F in boiling water.