Over the holidays, I experimented a lot with recipes for pecan pie. Pecan pie is one of my dad’s favorites and since he went grain free, he has missed this on holidays.
I also was obviously not going to use the high fructose corn syrup and regular corn syrup that are in most pecan pie recipes, so I experimented with the ingredients I had on hand until I came up with a recipe that was (very much) kid and grandpa approved.
Fortunately, (or unfortunately) the first one I made that tasted right wasn’t in a pan that would photograph well, so for the sake of the blog, I had to make another one. This worked out great since we ended up with more people than we expected, including some family members who are not grain free.
To my surprise, a few of them said it was the best pecan pie they’d ever had. They didn’t even know it was a healthy recipe. It has been years since I’ve had regular pecan pie, but from what I remember, I think the real food version tastes better!
Please note that while this recipe is refined sugar free, it does have a lot of natural sweeteners and is not meant to be an everyday treat! I looked at dozens of recipes and experimented with what I had, but I got the ideas to pre-heat the maple syrup and add gelatin to the crust from this great post from Deliciously Organic.
Grain-Free Pecan Pie
Ingredients
CRUST:
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 tsp gelatin powder
- 1 TBSP coconut flour optional
- ½ cup butter or coconut oil cold/solid at room temperature
- 2 tsp coconut sugar
- 1 egg
FILLING:
- 1 cup maple syrup or ½ cup each maple syrup and honey
- 3 eggs
- 3 TBSP butter or coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1½ cups pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a food processor, pulse the almond flour, gelatin, and coconut flour until evenly mixed.
- Add the butter or coconut oil, coconut sugar, and egg and pulse until it forms a ball.
- Press into the bottom of a pie pan and set aside.
- For filling, in a small saucepan, bring the maple syrup to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes or until it reaches 225 degrees or starts to bubble up. I got this tip from this post.
- Pour into a bowl and add the butter/coconut oil, vanilla, and coconut sugar.
- Use an immersion blender to combine.
- Add eggs and blend until smooth.
- Pour over pie crust and top with pecans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the center is mostly set. Do not overbake!
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Are you a pie eater? What’s your favorite? Ever made a healthy version like this? Share below!
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Pecan pie, my fav, well I am not good with desserts but I will try the pie, Thank you.
Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
I made it dairy free to accommodate someone with an allergy, but otherwise followed the recipe to a T. It was great and surprisingly easy. Will be making again next Thanksgiving.
The trick is definitely heating the maple syrup to 225. Luckily I have a candy thermometer—I probably would have taken it off the heat too soon without the thermometer.
I made this with regular crust and heated the 3/4 c. maple syrup and 1/4 c. honey just to melt the sugar and blended the eggs and combined them when the syrup cooled down. I baked it for 30 min. It was lovely!! I would recommend this recipe. I want to keep it to use again! Thank you!
I made this pecan pie today and it looks wonderful. But when I cut a slice it was runny in the middle. I followed your recipe and I only cooked 30 minutes so I wouldn’t over bake as you mentioned. I am not sure what went wrong. Any idea?
Katie, I put my pecan pie back in the oven for 10 more minutes and it set up nice.
Love following your recipes! I find this to be a bit too temptingly sweet for my addictive sweet tooth, so I’m going to make the following substitutions and will write back with the results:
¼ cup maple syrup
6-10 medjool dates processed till smooth (optional: presoak in hot, diluted decaf coffee for extra flavor depth (comes out to ~½ cup pureed dates)
¼ cup homemade apple butter
4 eggs (instead of 3)
2-4T organic, homemade ghee (for that richer flavor)
Wish me luck! No matter what, soupy or set, I’ll eat and share with friends and family!
Just made this with added chocolate chips!! Can’t wait to try it….
If you use honey with the maple syrup do you pre heathat as well?
Thank you for this recipe.
Yes
Looks delicious!! Have you or anyone tried it using egg substitutes?? Trying to heal 4 yr old food allergies (egg one) by healing her gut but until then, no eggs. Ideas???
I used just the yolk and the crust was not crust-ish but still tasty! Did you use the whole cup of Maple Syrup or did you half it with Honey? I did half and half, and though the middle was a little to gooey to cut without refrigeration, it was delicious and not soupy like I was afraid of. This was my very first pecan pie and I was really happy with it. So was my hubby! Pecan is his favorite pie 😉
Got partway through making the crust then realized that the ingredients call for one egg, but the directions call for the egg yolk (but does not specify quantity). Is the crust supposed to have one whole egg or one egg yolk? I guess I should have read through the entire thing first before diving in Thanksgiving eve! Thanks for all of your informative and inspiring posts!
What did you wind up doing? I have the same question!!! Whole egg or just the yolk??
I ended up throwing the whole egg in, and the crust turned out amazing! The rest of the pie however… I followed directions to a T but the pie came out pretty much all liquid with some pecans mixed in 🙁 It took almost two full days to set properly. BUT, once it set it was one of the most delicious pecan pies ever! And since it wasn’t ready for everyone to enjoy on Thanksgiving, I got to enjoy it over and over again the following week and a half!