You may not believe this, but I’ve never had pecan pie. I’m guessing this must be what it tastes like. At least, I hope so, since they’re pretty darned good… Maybe someday I’ll try to make an actual pecan pie, but for now I’m still working my way through my recipe books. This is another from my Old Fashioned Cookies book, from 2004.
Pecans are getting crazy expensive, but buying them in bulk can cut down costs. I also often put pecans in recipes instead of walnuts because they’re cheaper (and taste better to me).
Okay, so this recipe isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Take a 9×13 inch baking pan and grease it. Set it aside and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a small-ish bowl, beat together 1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened), 1 and 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar until it’s crumbly.
Press this mixture into the bottom of your pan. And for the record, yes, it tastes like pie crust. Throw it into the oven and bake 12-15 minutes or until brown. Don’t overcook it because you’ll be putting it back in later.
Set that aside, and while it’s cooling we’ll make the filling. I wound up using light corn syrup for this instead of dark (the recipe didn’t specify), so whatever you want to use is fine.
Beat together 3 large eggs, 3/4 cup granulated (normal) sugar, 3/4 cup corn syrup, 2 tablespoons butter or margarine (melted) and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Stir in 1 and 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans along with 1 and 3/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chunks. That’s a 11.5 ounce package if you’re using these:
I really had a hard time not just eating the bag. Yummy… Anyway, I also had a hard time finding those. I wound up finding them in a Wal-Mart in the US. You want the chunks, not the morsels, and as of the time of writing this they are still available on their website.
Once you’ve got that all mixed up it’ll be kind of a runny mixture with chunks of goodies.
Pour this right over the crust, and spread it out as evenly as you can.
Since you’re oven is already hot you can just pop this in and bake it for 25-30 minutes or until set. I found that timing to be about right.
Once you take it out, cool it in the pan and then cut it into bars. These were so much better than I thought they’d be! And a lot easier to make than I thought when I first looked at them. They taste a lot more like chocolate than I expected, but I don’t think I’ve ever made anything with chocolate chunks before. Anyway, if you make them I’d love to know your results. (as usual)
I'll Have A Slice 