I’m definitely more of a cook than a baker; desserts just aren’t my strong suit.  That said, I can whip up a pound cake or a batch of chocolate chip cookies with relative ease, and I make a mean cobbler.  But there’s one item I’ve always been intimidated to try: PIE.

This is a common fear.  I suspect it’s the impossibility of sampling a slice before it’s ready to serve.  After all, since you can’t even make a little version to test, you have no idea if it turned out well until you’re serving it to others.  Whatever the reason, though, pie is the trademark of confident bakers.

Feeling frisky, I decided I would take a crack at it.  I consulted my old friend Eric from Bethesda, who has such a knack for collecting tasty recipes that I long ago nicknamed him “Delicious.”  As predicted, Delicious came through with a slew of tempting suggestions.  Since he indicated that pecan pie is easy, I went with that first, using Gourmet‘s classic Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie, which is conveniently available on Epicurious.com.

Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie Ingredients List

• Pastry dough**
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest*
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound)*

*I used a little more than recommended.

**First, I will admit that I didn’t make the crust.  I used Marie Callendar’s trusty freezer variety, and it was fine.  Yes, I’m sure homemade would have been better, and in my mind I really wanted to do that.  But since here in reality that was never going to happen, let’s not  speak of it again.

• I started with toasting the pecans.  That wasn’t in the recipe, but I sensed it would provide added depth of flavor.  Plus, it was easy, so I recommend it.  I also used a bit more than the two cups the recipe calls for and toasted them at 350 for 10 minutes or so:

• Next, I melted 3/4 stick of butter (resisting my temptation to use salted butter, since I always like a little salty kick in my dessert).  I added 1-1/4 cups of light brown sugar to that.

• As instructed, I whisked this quite a bit.  However, since the recipe says “whisk until smooth,” I thought I needed to get all of the sugar incorporated into some kind of liquidy brown butter in order to avoid a granular pie.  After about seven years of whisking, I gave up on that idea, and since the pie turned out, I was obviously right to do so.  This is how my whisked butter and sugar looked:

• Then I removed from heat and whisked in 3/4 cup light corn syrup, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest, and 1/4 teaspoon of my beloved salt.  As you can see below, I actually used quite a bit more than 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest.  Once again, I liked the result, so I recommend going for a full teaspoon on that.

• I lightly beat 3 eggs in a bowl and added the whole gooey brown sugar-butter-corn syrup mixture to that (no need for tempering since the corn syrup had already cooled the whole mix down).

•  I mounded my toasted pecans into my prepared-as-directed Marie Callendar pie shell:

• I poured the corn syrup mixture on top:

• The recipe calls for baking on a baking sheet for 50 minutes to 1 hour.  However, I peeked a lot, and at 45 minutes, I decided my pie was done.  Maybe my oven is hot (or perhaps it’s the extra pecans I added), but it worked.

This pie really was everything you could want in a holiday dessert– rich and complex with an inviting variety of textures and a sophisticated mix of flavors.  The orange zest particularly set it apart from any pecan pie I’ve tried before.  I will definitely be making it for the BIG DAY next weekend, and I suggest you head on over to Epicurious.com and try it out.  Trust me; if even a pie novice like me can do it, you will have no trouble at all!

And for extra panache, my friend “Delicious” Eric suggested the following:

Delicious’ Delicious Holiday Whipped Cream

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 Tablespoon superfine or confectioner’s sugar
• 1 Tablespoon of bourbon or whiskey
• 1-2 Tablespoons of sour cream