The Best Pecan Pie Ever

I don't know if you are aware or not, but in just one week we will all be celebrating one of our country's finest holidays: Thanksgiving.  The one holiday where we come together as friends and family to give thanks for what we have and perhaps making it through another year. And then we fight over the only two turkey legs and the largest piece of pie.  At least we'll be thankful at the end of the day once we've eaten, right?

This year, I have been charged with bringing cranberry sauce and pecan pie.  No.  I do not buy the cranberry sauce in a can, and while some might argue that cranberry sauce is only good with the imprint of an aluminum can wrapped around a jellied cylinder, I disagree.  I actually make the cranberry sauce and, it has to be said, it's pretty darn good.  But this post isn't about cranberry sauce.  It's about pecan pie.

I am on a quest this year to make the best pecan pie ever.  I've done a little research the past few days this morning and I've found some of the most salivating recipes I could find.  The first is more of a twist on pumpkin pie, and although I probably won't embark on this recipe because we will already have a pumpkin pie gracing the dinner table, I think it was worth sharing.  From foodandwine.com, this recipe is for Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel.  The combination of pumpkin and pecans caught my eye.  Maybe I'll hold on to this one for Christmas, or just a regular Tuesday night.

The next is Pecan-Bourbon Pie from bonappetit.com.  I don't know what it is about bourbon, but it must make pecan pie tasty.  I guess there's only one way to find out.  Keeping with the bourbon flavor, the third pie is from Better Homes and Gardens and adds raisins to the mix in Bourbon-Raisin Pecan Pie.  Raisins are an acquired taste, I think.  Not everybody digs them, so I'll keep away from this recipe.

The next pie recipe, Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie, comes from theKitchn.com.  What's interesting about this recipe is its self-proclaimed old-fashioned taste without using corn syrup, but a natural substitute made from cane sugar.  This is worth the try and I'm curious if such an alternative syrup could be used in any recipe.

Toasting the pecans prior to putting them in the pie filling is the hallmark of this next recipe from bonappetit.com for, what else, Toasted-Pecan Pie.  Toasting any nut enhances the flavor and I'm excited to see what toasting the pecans can do for the pie's overall taste.  

At this current moment, I am leaning toward a recipe from the great state of Texas: Texas State Fair Pecan Pie.  The recipe is available on foodandwine.com, and I am a sucker for things that win State Fair competitions. We all know that everything is bigger (and better) in Texas, so why shouldn't this pecan pie be the biggest and baddest pie of them all?  The final decision still has to be made, and although I'm not from Texas and I've never been to Texas, there's a little bit of lone star in me itching to make this pie.

What dish do you look forward to at Thanksgiving?  Are you bringing a famous dish or making Thanksgiving with a twist?  How do you say pecan - peCAN or peCAHN?  Help a brother out.