The One Ingredient Swap You Should Make With Pecan Pie

When it comes to Thanksgiving, the hardest decision you'll face isn't whether or not you should have another helping of sweet potato casserole (you definitely should), but which dessert you'll indulge in. There are always the classics like pumpkin or chocolate silk pie, but the ultimate choice seems to be pecan. It doesn't get much better than the sweet and nutty pie — especially if it has a splash of bourbon in it too. The only downside of picking that slice of pecan pie is that it frequently has quite a lot of corn syrup in the filling.

While this kind of corn syrup is not inherently bad, it's like another kind of sugar; and even if it is just another sugar, there's still a lot of it in classic pecan pie recipes. According to All Recipes, Epicurious, and the American Pecan Council, the classic way to make pecan pie calls for about one cup of light or dark corn syrup, with a secondary sweetener of roughly another cup of sugar (either brown sugar or white granular sugar). However, there is way to make this pie without all of the corn syrup included.

According to Gimme Some Oven, you don't have to use corn syrup at all when baking a pecan pie if you don't want to. The ingredient can easily be replaced with more natural agents to sweeten the pie. The primary sweetener that replaces the corn syrup in this recipe is actually maple syrup, and the secondary dry sweetener that's used is coconut sugar, though brown sugar can be used instead if you prefer. This combination will give you a naturally-sweetened pecan pie that's just as delicious as the classic recipe.

To replace the corn syrup and white sugar in your pecan pie with maple syrup and coconut or brown sugar, you'll need to make the swap when you prepare the filling after baking the pie crust. To do so, you'll whisk the eggs, maple syrup, coconut or brown sugar, bourbon, cornstarch, vanilla, sea salt, and ground cinnamon together. The melted butter is added next and mixed until everything is combined well. Once the filling is ready, just pour it into the baked pie crust over your pecans. What you'll end up with is a deliciously sweet, corn syrup-free pecan-filled pie that's worth giving a shot.