Pecan Pie

“Miriam, if you have made healthy pecan pie that tastes this good, then you must be a wizard.” - A fellow senior

Hello everyone! This past Friday, I tried my first recipe conversion. One of my best friend’s favorite desserts is Pecan Pie, so I decided to try changing a typical Pecan Pie recipe into a healthier version. I was nervous to try something so ambitious to start off with—I had never, ever made a normal Pecan Pie, let alone a healthy one. Also, normal Pecan Pie is not the easiest to make. There are a lot of steps, and getting the correct consistency is highly dependent on the ingredients used.

I began by looking at a normal Pecan Pie recipe and trying to figure out what ingredients could be replaced with healthier versions. In the recipe that I found, there were four major ingredients that I knew I wanted to find substitutes for: white sugar, dark corn syrup, butter, and cornstarch. White sugar and corn syrup are both highly processed and very sweet. Butter is essentially just unnecessary fat. Although it is a good thickening agent, Cornstarch is a way to get empty calories; moreover, there are many other ways to thicken baked goods, while also adding more nutrients to the dessert.

I decided that I would “kill-two-birds-with-one-stone” and use honey, in place of the white sugar and corn syrup. Honey has a natural sweetness that can rival processed white sugar. Furthermore, honey also has the consistency of corn syrup, giving the pie the same creamy, smooth texture. Instead of Cornstarch, I decided to use Xanthan Gum and Flaxseed. Both of those ingredients are high in a few nutrients, most notably fiber. Fiber is something that Cornstarch lacks. The butter was the toughest to figure out a good substitute for. All the options that were thought of were either too oily or would not produce the same affect that the butter would.

I finally found the perfect solution to the butter dilemma: applesauce. Applesauce contains all the inherent nutrients in regular apples, while also providing the dessert with a creamy texture and a sweet flavor. I decided to make my own applesauce, to avoid any preservatives or additives that may be included in store-bought applesauce.

After I baked the pie, I was a bit skeptical of how it would taste. It smelled great, looked great, but I was very nervous about its texture and flavor. My nerves were settled once I tasted the pie. It was absolutely delicious. The texture worked out perfectly, and the flavor was (in my humble opinion) better than normal pecan pie.

I corroborated my findings by doing a taste test at school the next day. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. I tested the pie out on at least 20 students. All the responses consisted of “This pie is amazing!” or “This is better than normal pecan pie!”. One of my favorite responses came from a friend of mine who, prior to this study, did not even like pecan pie. He said, “Miriam, I hated pecan pie, and you made me love pecan pie with this pie.”. When I told my friends of the fact that this pecan pie had no all-purpose flour, no white sugar, and no butter in it, jaws dropped.

I would absolutely call this recipe transformation a success. I was able to transform a normal pecan pie recipe, full of ingredients that induce lethargy and weight gain, into something that is nutritious and delicious. This success serves to prove the interchangeability of certain ingredients with healthier ones. This success makes me even more excited to tackle my next challenge: Wendy's Baconators.

Recipe:

Pecan Pie

Filling:

1 ¾ cups white sugar à 1.5 cups of brown sugar

¼ cup dark corn syrup à ¼ cup honey

¼ cup butter à ¼ - 1/3 cup of applesauce or mashed apples (unsweetened)

1 tablespoon cold water

2 teaspoons cornstarch à ~ 2 – 3 teaspoons of flaxseed

3 eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups chopped pecans

Original Recipe: “Pecan Pie”. Linda Seay. Allrecipes.com

Added to new recipe: ~ 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Crust:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour à 1 ¼ cups almond flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup shortening, chilled à ¼ cup shortening, chilled

3 tablespoons ice water

Original Recipe: “Basic Flaky Pie Crust”. Stephanie. Allrecipes.com

Added to new recipe: 1 tablespoon honey; ½ teaspoon xanthan gum

Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Oven Heat: 350 degrees

Boil brown sugar, honey, applesauce, water, and flaxseed on stovetop; beat eggs until frothy; add boiled ingredients to eggs; add all other ingredients; stir in pecans; pour mix into prepared pie crust

Apple Sauce:

4 chopped apples (Honeycrisp or Granny Smith)

A pinch of Cinnamon

A pinch of Allspice

¼ cup of water

¼ teaspoon lemon zest

Chop apples into wedges; Boil all the apples and the water on the stove for ~ 7 minutes; add the lemon zest and the spices; place in blender, and blend until smooth