Impossible Pecan Pie

I don’t know how anything so curdled, coagulated, lumpy, and broken can turn out so
delicious, but this pie manages to defy the odds. The result is half pie, half candy bar,
and 100% delicious.

Yield: one 9” pie, 8 to 12 slices

Active time: about 30 minutes

4 large eggs
1 cup, 8 ounces water
3 cups, 21 ounces plain or toasted sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal
1 stick, 4 ounces unsalted butter, cold
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, Scotch, or bourbon
2 1/2 cups, 10 ounces pecan halves, raw
1 fully baked 9-inch pie crust

Before getting started, place the whole eggs in a small bowl, cover with hot tap
water and set aside.
Combine 8 ounces (1 cup) water with the sugar and salt in a 3-quart stainless steel
saucier over medium heat. Stir with a fork until the sugar dissolves and the syrup begins
to bubble, about 7 minutes. Fill a ramekin with water, then use it to wet a pastry brush
and wipe all around the edges of the pot, wherever you see sugar crystals or splashes
of syrup. Rewet the brush as needed, “washing” around the sides until totally clean. Be
generous! Extra water will not hurt the pie filling, but sugar crystals will.
Crank the heat to medium-high and clip on a digital thermometer. Cook without
stirring until the syrup is honey colored and 325°, about 12 minutes. Immediately
remove from the heat, add the butter all at once, and stir with a heat resistant spatula
until the foam subsides. Cool the syrup to 200°, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
to ensure it cools at an even rate. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°.
Whisk the eggs and vanilla (or booze) in a medium bowl until well combined, then
fold in the pecans with a flexible spatula. Pour the hot butterscotch over the eggy-

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 Impossible Pecan Pie

pecans and fold with a spatula until the pecans are well coated in butterscotch and the
eggs are mostly absorbed. The butter will seem to pool out of the mixture, and you may
notice a few specks of curdled egg, but that’s a-okay. Really.
Scrape into the prepared crust, and don’t worry about trying to spread it into an
even layer. Bake 30 minutes, then cover the outer ring of crust with a pie shield and
continue baking until the filling is bubbling hot and all puffed up, about 15 minutes more.
When fully baked, the pie will registers 210° in the center. Cool at least 2 hours before
slicing with a chef’s knife; prior to that the filling will be warm and runny.
Wrapped in plastic, leftovers will keep 3 days at room temperature, or a week in
the fridge.

Troubleshooting:
This recipe depends on an accurate digital thermometer, and when things go
wrong you can bet the readings were off. This can happen by misreading an analogue
thermometer, failing to fully submerge the probe in the syrup, or simply when good
thermometers go bad (a sad fact of life). It can also happen with meat thermometers not
intended for high heat, or when the batteries start to fade. Check the temperature range
of your thermometer to be certain it can register 335°, then test its accuracy by making
sure it reads 212° in a pot of boiling water.