Skip to main content
Dessert

Mom's Southern Pecan Pie

A sweet pie with a custard filling made from fruit sweetener, cornmeal, applesauce or butter, eggs, vanilla, coffee, and pecan halves.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and coffee match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,391 recipes mention both. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven375°F
Time30 to 40 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter, custard

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare pastry and place in 9" pie pan.

  2. In large bowl, combine fruit sweetener, cornmeal and applesauce or butter. Beat with electric mixer.

  3. In small bowl, blend water and cornstarch until smooth. Add to fruit sweetener mixture and blend.

  4. Beat in eggs one at a time.

  5. Stir in vanilla and coffee.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour mixture into pie shell.

  2. Decorate top with pecan halves.

  3. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until custard is set, at 375°F.

  4. Cool slightly before cutting.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + coffeetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Egg + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Egg + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the filling structure and body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid filling so it holds together when sliced.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a slightly grainy texture to the filling.
Fruit sweetener
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown during baking.
Unsweetened applesauce
Adds moisture and softness to the filling in place of some fat.

The step that matters

Bake until the custard is fully set. Underbaked eggs stay loose and the filling will not hold a clean slice. Baking too long can make the eggs curdle and the custard weep or turn rubbery, so check for a set centre rather than relying only on time.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of Vanilla Ice CreamIllustrationVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesIllustration of Coffee Ice CreamIllustrationCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesIllustration of Coffee CustardIllustrationCoffee Custard27 recipesIllustration of Coffee CakeIllustrationCoffee Cake21 recipes