Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie crust (buy one or use this pie crust recipe)
• 2 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup corn syrup, Lyle's golden syrup, or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 Tablespoons bourbon

• Yield: 1 9-inch pie; about 8 servings

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. If you've made your own crust, roll it out and place it in a pie pan. Oil or butter the shiny side of a piece of foil and place it, oiled side down, on the pie crust. Fill with pie weights or dry beans. Bake 15 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes. Let cool a bit.
3. For a particularly pretty pie, arrange pecans in concentric circles in the empty crust. Set those pecans aside. Chop remaining pecans. Or, skip that step and just chop all the pecans.

1. While the pie crust bakes, melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the syrup, sugar, cream, and salt. Stir until the sugar completely dissolves. Take off the heat and let cool to at least a warm room temperature. Stir in chopped pecans and bourbon. Pour mixture into partially-baked pie crust and arrange reserved whole pecans in the concentric circles on top of the filling, if you like. Place pie pan on a baking sheet (to save your oven in case it bubbles over), and bake until the entire filling is just bubbling vigorously—and that includes the very middle of the pie—about 40 minutes.
2. Let cool until set before serving.