Brown Butter Walnut Pie

Ah pie.

Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so for me Thanksgiving dinner has nothing to do with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, or gravy. Sure, they're okay. And stuffing can be quite tasty. But truth be told, I could live without it.

And yes, I really am talking about the dinner part of Thanksgiving and not the family let's-all-come-and-be-thankful part. So I'm not leading up to an obvious "All I need for Thanksgiving dinner is togetherness." Of course I need my family. But this is a food blog after all.

So just give me some pie.

"There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie...." It's so true they put it in a Christmas carol ("Sleigh Ride," composed by Leroy Anderson with lyrics by Mitchell Parish).

I've raved about pie before, and posted several versions of pumpkin pies (here and here) as well. So I'll leave pumpkin out of it for a minute (though that is a Thanksgiving staple not to be missed).

But I always make two different kinds of pies for Thanksgiving. Typically, pumpkin and then pecan. It's a southern thing and I'm originally from Texas. Besides, pecans plus sugar plus pie crust equal divinity that few foods can reach (if you're from the south, you know what I'm talking about).

However, holidays don't always go according to plan. Such as this year when my mom ordered our first ever "deep fried" turkey from a restaurant that shall remain nameless that undercooked our turkey and threw in "time saving" sides that we had to buy extra ingredients for and assemble ourselves.... But that's another story. Even before all that, I was scrambling on the day before Thanksgiving to take care of all my errands and responsibilities for the week including the making of the two Thanksgiving pies to bring to dinner the next day. I'd had everything I needed for pumpkin pie well in advance, but then my eggs went bad and I forgot to buy pecans. Not a complete disaster--my mom met up with me Wednesday night to deliver a few groceries including those quite necessary eggs. The only problem? She forgot the pecans too.

Exhausted by the end of the day, I decided I would just make a pumpkin pie, and perhaps come to Thanksgiving a little early to make a pecan pie at my mom's house first thing in the morning. And then I had an inspiration. Why not try something just a little different? That's what this baking blog is all about, and it's been quite a while since I've done some real experimenting.

I remembered seeing (and saving) an article on "Yahoo! Shine" earlier in the week for Brown Butter Walnut Pie, a concoction described with "earthy walnuts" that "replace pecans in this version of the classic pie." I knew I had walnuts. I love "earthy walnuts" and have often used them for toppings on frozen yogurt. The question was, would my family go for such a drastic switch?

It couldn't hurt to try.

My first change in the original Yahoo recipe was cutting the amount of ingredients in half (Six eggs? 13 Tablespoons of butter? That's a little too rich for my blood and certainly too much for my pie shells). I changed the amount of butter to a more comfortable 5 Tablespoons and then replaced the "whole walnut halves" with what I had on hand--chopped walnuts and tiny pieces of walnut topping. The cook time also had to be adjusted since I was making it at the same time as the pumpkin pie, which was already in a 350 degree oven instead of one at 375. No problem, I would just cook it for longer. Well, longer than the halved recipe would equal, which ended up being about the same length of time as the original recipe anyway (though I was just waiting until the pie started smelling really good).

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Less than 1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 + 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 + 1/8 teaspoons sea salt
3 eggs
2 cup pack of chopped walnuts
3/4 cup walnut topping (tiny pieces)
1 pie shell

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large glass bowl, melt your butter and set it aside to cool slightly before adding in the brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt.

2.) Slowly beat in the eggs and keep stirring to avoid curdling the butter. Then fold in both the chopped walnuts and the walnut topping (basically, whatever walnut pieces you can find).

3.) Pour the filling into your pie shell and bake for approximately 42 minutes or until the walnuts begin to brown but not burn.

Was the recipe a success? Let's just say no one asked me to make a pecan pie too. While the words "experiment" scared the family just a little ahead of time, everyone who tried the pie complimented it, and my own taste buds immediately told me that this new holiday recipe was a keeper.

Now pass around the coffee and we can all do that togetherness thing. I'm thankful for experiments that turn out well and wonderful family willing to eat the end results.  =)