Easy Chocolate Pecan Pie for Derby Day

Jamie here! Chocolate Pecan Pie is a beautiful beast of a pie.  Simply put, it’s pecan pie with chocolate chips. But that is not what your mouth will tell you. Your mouth will tell you “OHMYGAH- thank you for this chocolatey, nutty, gooey, flaky, beast!” It’s just so darn good your mouth will probably need another piece or two to do it justice. You’d best bake a double batch…. (I do!)

Trust me on this recipe. Lest you think this Easy Chocolate Pecan Pie recipe for Derby Day is another one of those fly-by-night, made-for-pinterest-with-dubious-results kind of recipes, allow me clear that up for you.

Here’s me, a couple (ahem 10) years ago wearing my DIY Derby Hat that still gets pulled out each year for the big race.

• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup Sugar (1/2 white, 1/2 brown)
  *It’s not the end of the world if you only have one kind of sugar, but I’ve found this to be the BEST sugar ratio
• 1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 6 oz Pecan Halves or Pieces (Halves are prettier, but I usually go with pieces because it’s easier to slice through)
• 1 Cup Corn Syrup
• 1 Stick Melted Butter
• 1 Tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 2 Frozen Pie Shells (I use deep dish, so there’s no chance of spilling over into the oven)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  In a medium glass mixing bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Use your hand mixer to beat in the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Just add everything but the chocolate chips and nuts because you don’t want those to get mutilated by the beater.
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2. Add the chocolate chips and pecans to the bottom of each pie shell, and then pour half of the filling mixture over top. (Don’t worry, they pecans will rise to the top once they start baking.)  You could always mix the chocolate chips and pecans into the filling before adding it to the pie shells, but I always wait and add them last so I can make sure that each pie gets it’s fair amount of chocolate.
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3. Put them in the oven for 45 minutes.  Move them to the bottom rack about halfway through so the top edge of the crust won’t get too crispy. (You could also rip off a thin strip of foil and lightly cover just the crust with it – but in my experience, that’s more trouble than the results warrant.)
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4. At the end of the baking time, open the oven and jiggle the rack a little. The center of the pies should have just the slightest wiggle, too much wiggle and you’ll want to leave them in for an extra 10 or 15 minutes. My oven cooks unevenly, so this is my tried and true method of doneness 😉

You can serve these right away, but the center will likely run out onto your plate. From which you can lick it all off and be a happy camper. However, if you just let it cool and transfer it to the fridge for a couple of hours – that’s when it gets REALLY good. A thick fudgy consistency is how God intended. I like to make my pies the night before the big event and keep them in the fridge covered with foil. A scoop of ice cream on the side never hurt anybody either.

Also, note that this recipe makes two pies that will be a little more shallow than some other recipes. It solves the problem of the center sometimes not getting done all the way, while the pecans turn black. **If you like a super-deep-dish pie, you can always throw all these ingredients into one deep dish pie shell. If you do that, make sure to put it on a cookie sheet to catch the spillover, and you’ll want to lower the oven temp to 325.

Enjoy and Happy Derby Day!