My Southern Comfort Pecan Pie is easy to make, absolutely delicious, and a fun take on tradition. Serve it with Southern Comfort infused whipped cream!
Thanksgiving was last week, so I’m currently in the process of sharing some of the recipes I created for it.
Usually, we’re all about the pumpkin pie here, so my Gluten-Free Maple Pumpkin Pie is the go-to for both* of our Thanksgiving dinners!
The food is largely similar between the two, but we do NOT make the sweet potato marshmallow thing for Canadian Thanksgiving!
This year, my husband requested pecan pie for Thanksgiving. I haven’t made one in a very long time, so I agreed.
Given that the rarity of me making them makes it an *occasion*, I wanted to do something different with it.
So, after some discussion, we came up with...
Southern Comfort Pecan Pie
I love to use Southern Comfort in cooking and baking, such as my Spicy Southern Comfort Glazed Chicken, Southern Comfort Peach Popsicles, Southern Comfort Glazed Ham, or my Southern Comfort Peach Pie.
The king of all of my SoCo recipes, though, is my Peachy Southern Comfort Cheesecake.
In general, I love the combo of peaches and Southern Comfort (you may have noticed a pattern there!), but the addition of the pecan crust on that cheesecake?
*chef kiss*
SO when the time came to figure out a way to make this pie a bit different, a bit more of “our own”, Southern Comfort was my go-to idea to play with!
As a note: I don’t have any relationship with the brand, and I don’t even really drink it. It just has such a lovely flavour when it comes to baking!
Designing this Recipe
A bit of an issue with boozing up a pecan pie: The only liquids in the traditional recipe are corn syrup and eggs.
Where many baking recipes are easy to change liquid out in - say, swapping some of the water for a liqueur of choice - neither eggs nor corn syrup can be switched out in the same way.
So, what I’d have to do is introduce liquid to the recipe, then compensate for it.
I wanted to add enough Southern Comfort for the flavour to come through, otherwise, there’s no point.
As I didn’t want it to be overpowering, I wouldn’t need to add a ton - so that made compensating fairly easy.
I upped the egg content, and added a very small amount of corn starch, as insurance.
I also decided to add a very small amount of Southern Comfort to the pecans. This made for a nice bit of accent and tied the flavours of the filling and the pecan top together.
A Note on the Pecans
As this was designed around my husband's tastes, there is a THICK layer of pecans on top.
If you're more for the filling than the pecans - like I am - you can decrease the amount of pecans to as little as 1 ½ cups.
Gluten-Free Southern Comfort Pecan Pie
Need this to be gluten-free?
Just swap out the crust for your favourite rolled-style gluten-free pie crust (ie: Don't use a pressed nut meal crust for this!)
The one on my Gluten-Free Maple Pumpkin Pie is fantastic - just leave out the spices, for this use!
The Final Result
This pie is fantastic! The filling has only a slightly different texture from traditional pecan pie, on account of the different proportions.
The taste is fabulous - the Southern Comfort comes through, without being overpowering. It's such a great compliment to the pecans!
"There's something about pecan pies where they can get too intense after half a piece. I LIKE them, but it can be... cloying. This one? I could eat the whole thing.
The crust on this one is REALLY good. Pie crust can be like cardboard vector to deliver pie filling, but this one was really great. It had great flavour, and that flaky texture, almost like a croissant? Loved it!" - My husband
(Note: While you can use any crust you like for this, we used my Great Uncle Tom's Perfect Pie Crust.)
The long cooking time allows most of the actual alcohol to cook off, and there's no alcohol "bite" to this, at all, just a great, smooth flavour.
We topped it with a quick Southern Comfort whipped cream, which was a perfect compliment to it (And ended up as something we'd eat straight out of the mixer, as-is!).
We lightly sweetened it to balance out the SoCo, but you can leave the sugar out if you like (recipe below).
As a note: As we were eating this, we realized that this pie recipe would also work well if you used whiskey/bourbon instead of the Southern Comfort.
I'd definitely recommend sticking to non-peated whiskeys, like Jack Daniels.
I would imagine that the fun, flavoured versions of Crown Royal would be amazing with this - Maple, Apple, Peach, Vanilla ... yeah!
Southern Comfort Whipped Cream
If you're someone who prefers whipped cream with their pecan pie, I recommend this SoCo Whipped cream with it!
1 cup Heavy Cream (keep it very cold!)
1 tablespoon sugar
1-2 Tablespoons Southern Comfort
Pinch Salt
Using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or an electric hand mixer, whip cream and sugar together until it's as stiff as you like it.
Add Southern Comfort and salt, continue whipping until it's well incorporated.
Serve immediately.
How to Make Southern Comfort Pecan Pie
Full recipe follows, but here's a pictorial overview!
Roughly chop the pecans.
In a dry pan, toast pecans over medium heat until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoon Southern Comfort, continue cooking until absorbed.
Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temp.
Preheat oven to 350 F
Line your pie pan with your prepared pie crust of choice. Flip the outer edge under, and crimp the edge as you see fit.
Whisk together the corn syrup, eggs, sugars, butter, Southern Comfort, cornstarch, and salt until smooth and well incorporated.
Add the cooled pecans, mix until well combined.
Pour filling into the prepared pie crust.
Bake pie for 30 minutes.
At the 30 minute mark, place a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the pie - this will help prevent it from burning.
Bake for another 30-35 minutes or so, until the pie is mostly set, with the center just a little bit jiggly.
Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. If not serving immediately, keep refrigerated after cooling.
The Spirited Baker
Enjoy baking with alcohol? You should check out my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. It’s FULL of fun, tasty recipes using spirits and liqueurs for flavour!
Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more.
To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy through Amazon, or through any major bookseller.
More Holiday Recipes
Looking for more inspiration for your holiday spread? Whether Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any of the other holidays, here's a few ideas for you!
Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake
Chicken Based Potato Sausage Recipe - Potatiskorv
Cranberry Wine
Egg Nog Sticky Buns
Gouda Mashed Potatoes
Maple Bourbon Glazed Carrots
Mushroom Brie Turnovers
Noelles - Holiday Cookies
Orange Ginger Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Classier Version
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Trashier Version
Pumpkin Mead
Pumpkin Spice Nanaimo Bars
Savoury Mushroom Chestnut Stuffing
Southern Comfort Glazed Ham
Traditional Cranberry Mousse
Traditional Pumpkin Mousse
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.
Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Decadent Southern Comfort Pecan Pie
Equipment
- 9 inch pie pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups Pecans
- 2 tablespoon Southern Comfort
- 1 pie crust for a 9" pie.
- 1 cup Corn syrup
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup Brown sugar packed
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- ¼ cup Butter melted
- ¼ cup Southern Comfort
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Roughly chop the pecans.
- In a dry pan, toast pecans over medium heat until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoon Southern Comfort, continue cooking until absorbed.
- Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temp.
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Line your pie pan with your prepared pie crust of choice. Flip the outer edge under, and crimp the edge as you see fit.
- Whisk together the corn syrup, eggs, sugars, butter, Southern Comfort, cornstarch, and salt until smooth and well incorporated. Add the cooled pecans, mix until well combined.
- Pour filling into the prepared pie crust.
- Bake pie for 30 minutes.
- At the 30 minute mark, place a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the pie - this will help prevent it from burning.
- Bake for another 30-35 minutes or so, until the pie is mostly set on the outside, with the center just a little bit jiggly.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. If not serving immediately, keep refrigerated after cooling.
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