Creating a Southern Comfort Food Classic: Brown Butter Pecan Pie

The art of making a Southern comfort food classic is all about evoking a specific flavor profile that is both nutty and caramelized. In this recipe, we're going to create a brown butter pecan pie that will transport you to the heart of the American South. The key to achieving this rich and buttery flavor is to use a technique called "brown butter," which involves cooking the butter until it reaches a deep golden brown color.

To start, place 1/2 cup of unsalted butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Continue stirring constantly as the butter begins to foam and turn a light golden brown color. As you stir, use your spatula to break up any brown bits that form at the bottom of the pan, scraping the sides to ensure even cooking. Be careful not to let the butter burn, as this will result in a burnt flavor rather than the desired nutty caramelized taste.

Once your butter has reached the desired color, remove it from the heat and continue stirring occasionally until it reaches a deep brown color. This should take about 5-7 minutes, depending on your heat level. The goal is to achieve a light brown color that still retains some of its original buttery flavor. If you notice any black spots or burnt bits, stop cooking immediately.

Now that our brown butter has cooled slightly, we can move on to preparing the filling for our pie. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of light brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of bourbon (optional), 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup of corn syrup until well combined. Add in 3 large eggs and whisk until smooth. The addition of the egg helps to create a sturdy consistency that will give our pie its signature texture.

Next, fold in 2 cups of pecans and a half teaspoon of kosher salt into the filling mixture until they are evenly coated. Don't forget to add the cooled brown butter to the mixture and gently fold it in until well combined. This is where the magic happens, as the flavors will start to meld together beautifully.

With our filling ready, we can now assemble our pie by pouring it into a pre-baked pie crust. Be sure to pour slowly and carefully, as the mixture will thicken quickly due to the corn syrup and eggs. Don't forget to sprinkle some additional kosher salt on top of the pie for added flavor and texture.

Finally, we have to add the crowning glory to our pie: bourbon whipped cream. To make this, combine 1 cup of chilled heavy cream in a separate bowl and beat it on high until soft peaks form. Be sure to chill your bowl and beaters in the freezer beforehand to ensure that the cream forms stiff peaks.

Next, add 2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of bourbon (optional) to the whipped cream mixture. Fold gently with a spatula until well combined, being careful not to deflate the mixture. Now it's time to top off our pie with a dollop of this heavenly whipped cream.

As we slice into our finished pie, the aroma of caramelized sugar and buttery pecans fills the air. The first bite transports us to the heart of the American South, where comfort food reigns supreme. With each spoonful, the flavors meld together in perfect harmony – a nutty, sweet, and salty symphony that will leave you wanting more.

This brown butter pecan pie is truly a Southern comfort food classic, a testament to the power of simple ingredients and expert technique. So go ahead, take a bite, and let the rich flavors transport you to the warm and cozy world of Southern hospitality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Cartier Brown and welcome to my kitchen I'm so glad you're here to join me we are making brown butter pecan pie it's my spin on a southern comfort food classic that brown butter adds another layer of nuttiness and I also top it with a bourbon whipped cream before we begin grab a stick of cold unsalted butter preheat your oven to 400 Degrees grab a medium bowl and chill that for the bourbon whipped cream and also grab a third cup of cold water okay let's get started on our pie dough grab one and one fourth cup of all-purpose flour level it off add it to your bowl now the fourth cup we're going to add one tablespoon of sugar granulated sugar a half a teaspoon of kosher salt mix that in and now let's grade in our code butter we're going to grate in one stick of butter and the reason we're grating in the butter because it distributes evenly when you grate it yeah and it's okay when your hand of course your hand is a little warm so it'll start to melt a little bit don't worry about that as long as most of your butter is grated okay all right give that a mix with your fork breaking up that butter okay what we can do is just use your hand break up some of that butter with your hand and we still have to add our water and you want to use your fingers to crumble this up into pea sizes this is a traditional pie dough you can use this for any pie key lime lemon chess pie that looks like pea sizes let's eyeball our water the recipe calls for a third of a cup but I have more just in case we'll need it just watch I pour it in slowly at a time and then mix it in what you're looking for is the dough to form a ball keep mixing it around this is the cold water we're adding all right now it's starting to form a bulk okay and I'm gonna have to use about a tablespoon more that's why you have to watch it it depends on your kitchen depends on how warm your hands are just adjust accordingly you know that you've added enough water when your dough forms a ball all right let's clean our hands let's grab some bench flour your surface smooth it out all right take some of that flour in my hand roll it around you don't want to overwork your pie dough take a rolling pin dust it with a little bit more flour you want to roll this out to about 12 inches in diameter you want it to be just a little bigger than your pie dish okay what I like to do is just see it's a little bigger okay right we're going to take our pie dough and transfer it into our pie dish okay what you want to do is fold over your pie crust up here just pull it up and fold it over and it makes it much easier if you have some flour on your hands folding it over pull it up fold it over pull it up fold it back this is a homemade pie crust guys it's not going to be perfect and that's the beauty of it pull it up some more and you're folding it back okay and just make sure it's even up there pull it up if you need to press it down right here pull it up press it down because it will fall into your your pie dish so you want to make sure you're pulling it up gently okay if you're not comfortable with making crimps you can always use a fork to make a small little indent in your crust but I like using crimps and I'll show you how to do that take your thumb finger your index finger and you take your index finger with your other hand and just press in press in press it that simple you're essentially pinching your your pie dough you want to make sure your hands are not sticky when you do this because your fingers will stick to the dough foreign we're going to pop our pie dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes and the reason we're doing that is because we need our pie dough to set up let's head over to the freezer all right so it's been 15 minutes let's poke some holes at the bottom of our pie crust and the reason we're doing that is because you need some air in this pie crust otherwise it'll bubble up just tiny holes with a toothpick if you don't have a toothpick you can use a fork all right grab a parchment paper push it down if you don't have pie weights you can always use dry beans and the reason we're using pie weights is because if you blindly bake a pie crust it does have the tendency to Bubble Up so in order for it to stay down in your pie dish you have to put some type of weight on it okay all right let's go over to our oven that's been preheated to 400 we're going to bake it for 15 to 20 minutes foreign hit that pause button meet me back here in 15 to 20 minutes it's been about 15-20 minutes let's remove our pie weights now we're going to brush our pie crust with an egg wash and the reason we are brushing the pie crust with an egg wash is to make it really pretty and shiny and it also helps Brown the pie crust I have some water here in a small bowl I'm going to add one egg give it a whisk here using a brush I'm gonna brush the edges glossy pie crust I am a pie girl you know the funny thing about it is that I don't like fruit in my pies I am more about the crust I am invested in the crust a warm crust with some ice cream shut your mouth what I like to do is like it doesn't matter if some of your egg wash gets at the bottom of your pie crust just I mean it wouldn't hurt just use your brush and brush it around just make sure you get those edges okay what I like to also do at this point is get a paper towel and just clean it up a little bit so once that egg wash Cooks it kind of gets Brown on your pie dish just clean it up all right we're going to pop this back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes hit pause and meet me back here foreign let's pull our pie crust out of the oven oh that's pretty that is pretty okay I'm gonna let this cool at this point we also need to turn down our oven to 350 okay now for the good stuff the filling let's about six tablespoons of unsalted butter we're going to melt this and brown it yeah brown butter is just going to add another layer of nuttiness and richness to this pecan pie Browning butter is just cooking it for an extended amount of time and you're actually caramelizing the butter so it's going to evoke this nutty almost caramelized flavor you definitely want to keep an eye on it at this point because it will burn we want brown butter not burnt butter and I like to continuously stir to break up any of those brown bits that start to form at the bottom of your pot make sure your heat is not up too high medium high heat should do it we're looking for a deep brown color starting to smell that butter cook what you want to do is take your wooden spoon or a spatula and break up some of that those brown spots on the side of your pot scraping the bottom okay that looks good to me it should be a light brown color I'm going to turn your heat down just a little bit all right we're going to let our brown butter cool move it to your back burner while that's cooling let's get started on the rest of our filling we're going to add one cup of light brown sugar to a bowl we're going to add one tablespoon of bourbon if you don't like alcohol you can skip this step that bourbon is going to cut through that sugar and molasses and corn syrup very nicely two teaspoons of vanilla extract a half a cup of corn syrup and a quarter cup of molasses wouldn't be a southern comfort food classic without molasses give it a whisk okay now we're going to add in our Eggs three eggs give it a whisk and if you've ever had pecan pie you know that's a really rich and sturdy pie adding the egg helps create that consistency okay all right now we're going to fold in our pecans we have two cups of pecans and a half a teaspoon of kosher salt Let's Fold it in with the wooden spoon if you have a spatula you can use that as well and don't forget about that brown butter it should have cooled by now we're going to add that in slowly pour it in and fold make sure your egg and syrup and the butter and the sugar are all mixed in thoroughly okay keep folding all right that should be good let's pour our mixture into our pie crust how gorgeous is that look at that color let's pop this in the oven at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes hit pause and meet me back here all right let's remove our pie from the oven that smells incredible oh and it's just as pretty look at that I know you want to dig into this right now but we got to let this cool hit pause and meet me back here when it's cool our Pie has cooled let's start on our bourbon whipped cream remember that bowl I told you to have chilled this is why we're going to add one cup of cold heavy cream we're gonna beat this on high until it forms soft peaks and if your kitchen is a little warm you can also chill your beaters in the freezer with your bowl the reason why we have are both chilled and as well as the beaters chills because we need to stabilize this whipped cream we're not adding any stabilizers like a gelatin to it so the only way that it'll form some type of structure is through being chilled I like to keep moving the bowl around getting the size and you should see your whipped cream should start to double in size let's see soft peaks okay now we're going to turn our mixer on low and add in two tablespoons of confectioners sugar I'm gonna add in a quarter teaspoon of salt your mixer should be on low okay let's stop it I'm just going to scrape down the sides the spatula and now we're going to add our bourbon one tablespoon I mean Bourbon and pecan pie why not okay instead of using the mixer we're going to fold in our bourbon of course if you're making this for your family or kids you can omit the bourbon okay the only thing left now is to try our brown butter pecan pie all right let's slice our pie I don't know which side I want to go the crust is really thick on this side I'm gonna go over here and use a knife oh did you hear how crispy that pie crust sounds oh man all right let's plate our pie oh man look at that okay let's get some of that bourbon whipped cream and top it off a little dollop on top should do the trick um let's try it makes you want to do a happy dance wow that's good that brown butter and the pie with the pecans and that brown sugar and the Molasses is buttery it's nutty it's sweet and then the whipped cream just cools it off on top and it has a little hint of that salt this is great hey thanks for joining me on this class I hope you had fun I had a blast with you don't forget to bookmark this recipe save it to your favorites and check out my other southern comfort food Classics on Food Network kitchenhey it's Cartier Brown and welcome to my kitchen I'm so glad you're here to join me we are making brown butter pecan pie it's my spin on a southern comfort food classic that brown butter adds another layer of nuttiness and I also top it with a bourbon whipped cream before we begin grab a stick of cold unsalted butter preheat your oven to 400 Degrees grab a medium bowl and chill that for the bourbon whipped cream and also grab a third cup of cold water okay let's get started on our pie dough grab one and one fourth cup of all-purpose flour level it off add it to your bowl now the fourth cup we're going to add one tablespoon of sugar granulated sugar a half a teaspoon of kosher salt mix that in and now let's grade in our code butter we're going to grate in one stick of butter and the reason we're grating in the butter because it distributes evenly when you grate it yeah and it's okay when your hand of course your hand is a little warm so it'll start to melt a little bit don't worry about that as long as most of your butter is grated okay all right give that a mix with your fork breaking up that butter okay what we can do is just use your hand break up some of that butter with your hand and we still have to add our water and you want to use your fingers to crumble this up into pea sizes this is a traditional pie dough you can use this for any pie key lime lemon chess pie that looks like pea sizes let's eyeball our water the recipe calls for a third of a cup but I have more just in case we'll need it just watch I pour it in slowly at a time and then mix it in what you're looking for is the dough to form a ball keep mixing it around this is the cold water we're adding all right now it's starting to form a bulk okay and I'm gonna have to use about a tablespoon more that's why you have to watch it it depends on your kitchen depends on how warm your hands are just adjust accordingly you know that you've added enough water when your dough forms a ball all right let's clean our hands let's grab some bench flour your surface smooth it out all right take some of that flour in my hand roll it around you don't want to overwork your pie dough take a rolling pin dust it with a little bit more flour you want to roll this out to about 12 inches in diameter you want it to be just a little bigger than your pie dish okay what I like to do is just see it's a little bigger okay right we're going to take our pie dough and transfer it into our pie dish okay what you want to do is fold over your pie crust up here just pull it up and fold it over and it makes it much easier if you have some flour on your hands folding it over pull it up fold it over pull it up fold it back this is a homemade pie crust guys it's not going to be perfect and that's the beauty of it pull it up some more and you're folding it back okay and just make sure it's even up there pull it up if you need to press it down right here pull it up press it down because it will fall into your your pie dish so you want to make sure you're pulling it up gently okay if you're not comfortable with making crimps you can always use a fork to make a small little indent in your crust but I like using crimps and I'll show you how to do that take your thumb finger your index finger and you take your index finger with your other hand and just press in press in press it that simple you're essentially pinching your your pie dough you want to make sure your hands are not sticky when you do this because your fingers will stick to the dough foreign we're going to pop our pie dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes and the reason we're doing that is because we need our pie dough to set up let's head over to the freezer all right so it's been 15 minutes let's poke some holes at the bottom of our pie crust and the reason we're doing that is because you need some air in this pie crust otherwise it'll bubble up just tiny holes with a toothpick if you don't have a toothpick you can use a fork all right grab a parchment paper push it down if you don't have pie weights you can always use dry beans and the reason we're using pie weights is because if you blindly bake a pie crust it does have the tendency to Bubble Up so in order for it to stay down in your pie dish you have to put some type of weight on it okay all right let's go over to our oven that's been preheated to 400 we're going to bake it for 15 to 20 minutes foreign hit that pause button meet me back here in 15 to 20 minutes it's been about 15-20 minutes let's remove our pie weights now we're going to brush our pie crust with an egg wash and the reason we are brushing the pie crust with an egg wash is to make it really pretty and shiny and it also helps Brown the pie crust I have some water here in a small bowl I'm going to add one egg give it a whisk here using a brush I'm gonna brush the edges glossy pie crust I am a pie girl you know the funny thing about it is that I don't like fruit in my pies I am more about the crust I am invested in the crust a warm crust with some ice cream shut your mouth what I like to do is like it doesn't matter if some of your egg wash gets at the bottom of your pie crust just I mean it wouldn't hurt just use your brush and brush it around just make sure you get those edges okay what I like to also do at this point is get a paper towel and just clean it up a little bit so once that egg wash Cooks it kind of gets Brown on your pie dish just clean it up all right we're going to pop this back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes hit pause and meet me back here foreign let's pull our pie crust out of the oven oh that's pretty that is pretty okay I'm gonna let this cool at this point we also need to turn down our oven to 350 okay now for the good stuff the filling let's about six tablespoons of unsalted butter we're going to melt this and brown it yeah brown butter is just going to add another layer of nuttiness and richness to this pecan pie Browning butter is just cooking it for an extended amount of time and you're actually caramelizing the butter so it's going to evoke this nutty almost caramelized flavor you definitely want to keep an eye on it at this point because it will burn we want brown butter not burnt butter and I like to continuously stir to break up any of those brown bits that start to form at the bottom of your pot make sure your heat is not up too high medium high heat should do it we're looking for a deep brown color starting to smell that butter cook what you want to do is take your wooden spoon or a spatula and break up some of that those brown spots on the side of your pot scraping the bottom okay that looks good to me it should be a light brown color I'm going to turn your heat down just a little bit all right we're going to let our brown butter cool move it to your back burner while that's cooling let's get started on the rest of our filling we're going to add one cup of light brown sugar to a bowl we're going to add one tablespoon of bourbon if you don't like alcohol you can skip this step that bourbon is going to cut through that sugar and molasses and corn syrup very nicely two teaspoons of vanilla extract a half a cup of corn syrup and a quarter cup of molasses wouldn't be a southern comfort food classic without molasses give it a whisk okay now we're going to add in our Eggs three eggs give it a whisk and if you've ever had pecan pie you know that's a really rich and sturdy pie adding the egg helps create that consistency okay all right now we're going to fold in our pecans we have two cups of pecans and a half a teaspoon of kosher salt Let's Fold it in with the wooden spoon if you have a spatula you can use that as well and don't forget about that brown butter it should have cooled by now we're going to add that in slowly pour it in and fold make sure your egg and syrup and the butter and the sugar are all mixed in thoroughly okay keep folding all right that should be good let's pour our mixture into our pie crust how gorgeous is that look at that color let's pop this in the oven at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes hit pause and meet me back here all right let's remove our pie from the oven that smells incredible oh and it's just as pretty look at that I know you want to dig into this right now but we got to let this cool hit pause and meet me back here when it's cool our Pie has cooled let's start on our bourbon whipped cream remember that bowl I told you to have chilled this is why we're going to add one cup of cold heavy cream we're gonna beat this on high until it forms soft peaks and if your kitchen is a little warm you can also chill your beaters in the freezer with your bowl the reason why we have are both chilled and as well as the beaters chills because we need to stabilize this whipped cream we're not adding any stabilizers like a gelatin to it so the only way that it'll form some type of structure is through being chilled I like to keep moving the bowl around getting the size and you should see your whipped cream should start to double in size let's see soft peaks okay now we're going to turn our mixer on low and add in two tablespoons of confectioners sugar I'm gonna add in a quarter teaspoon of salt your mixer should be on low okay let's stop it I'm just going to scrape down the sides the spatula and now we're going to add our bourbon one tablespoon I mean Bourbon and pecan pie why not okay instead of using the mixer we're going to fold in our bourbon of course if you're making this for your family or kids you can omit the bourbon okay the only thing left now is to try our brown butter pecan pie all right let's slice our pie I don't know which side I want to go the crust is really thick on this side I'm gonna go over here and use a knife oh did you hear how crispy that pie crust sounds oh man all right let's plate our pie oh man look at that okay let's get some of that bourbon whipped cream and top it off a little dollop on top should do the trick um let's try it makes you want to do a happy dance wow that's good that brown butter and the pie with the pecans and that brown sugar and the Molasses is buttery it's nutty it's sweet and then the whipped cream just cools it off on top and it has a little hint of that salt this is great hey thanks for joining me on this class I hope you had fun I had a blast with you don't forget to bookmark this recipe save it to your favorites and check out my other southern comfort food Classics on Food Network kitchen\n"