My Grandma’s Perfect Pecan Pie Recipe

You are about to learn how to make the best pecan pie…ever.

Are you ready?

The best pecan pie is baked by my grandma on our North Dakota farm.

Grandma Nola earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics 60 years ago. You can read on GriggsDakota about my grandma’s lifelong commitment to providing food for our farm family. She is rare woman, especially in this day and age hurriedly, short-cut, prepared, semi-homemade cooking. My mom, sister and I have learned tremendous cooking and baking skills and tips from her through the years. Kirsti mastered boiling water just a few years ago. Okay…low jab to my sister. No more. Back to pie.

I first made my Grandma Nola’s pecan pie when I was a young twenty-something, trying to impress my Southern friends in Georgia, known for their pecans. Never fail, the pecan pies using my grandma’s recipe turned out beautifully, numerous times. I was a pie baking rock star at age 21 or so I thought. Then the first Thanksgiving Nathan and I were married in my late twenties, we were hosting both of our families and I made a few pecan pies. Under the gun, I failed at pecan pie baking. The pies were a runny mess. Defeated, I took a pecan pie baking hiatus. 

Thanks to my grandma’s expertise and 65 years of pie baking experience, I learned from my mistakes and have once again have baked perfect pecan pies in my thirties. I get better with age or maybe I’m more willing to learn with age. 

USDA Pecan Pie

Grandma Nola’s Recipe, shared with permission

Unbaked 10″ Pie Shell 

(Unless you cheat and buy 9″ pie shells in the freezer section at your grocery store…then reduce your pecans a bit and make sure you don’t overflow your pie shell)

1 Cup Sugar

1 1/2 Cups Dark Corn Syrup

1 tsp. Vanilla

4 Eggs 

1/8 tsp. Salt

2 TBSP plus 1 tsp Butter (melted)

1 1/2 Cup Pecan halves, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs just until blended. Add sugar, salt and corn syrup. Add cooled melted butter and vanilla, mixing just enough to blend. 

Spread pecans on the bottom of the pie shell.

Now my husband likes to add chocolate chips to most anything. Knowing this, in one of my recent pecan pies, my sister-in-law tossed a handful of chocolate chips with the pecans. It was a fantastic addition and a huge hit.

Pour in filling over the pecans. Grandma says to cover your pie edges.

Place pie in oven.

Reduce heat to 325 degrees.

Bake 50-60 minutes. 

It takes a while to bake the pie. 

Be patient. 

You might need to bake for additional 10 minutes. You don’t want it to get too dark but it needs to be cooked all the way through and not runny. Grandma says use a toothpick in the middle to check. Don’t break the crust but just sneak in a tooth pick and if it comes out clean, it is done.

Cool. Each pie serves 8-10.

I made two pecan pies which I was quite pleased with but in comparison to the pie baking line of women I come from, I have much to live up to like when my mom whipped up nineteen pies one day. Grandma Nola and my mom are truly pie baking artists and I have much to learn.

But one day maybe we can all be pie baking artists?

I am going to keep learning, one perfect pecan pie at a time.

How about you?