*You can also use rum, whiskey, or brandy. If you don’t want to cook with alcohol at all, you can increase the maple syrup to 1 cup and add 1 teaspoon of rum extract in place of vanilla for the flavoring.

For the filling, whisk eggs lightly then add maple syrup, bourbon, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Load in the pecan halves and stir. Pour filling into pastry-lined pie plate. Bake on bottom oven rack at 350-degrees for 40-45 minutes.

(I always bake pies on the bottom oven rack. For one thing, it guarantees a well-baked bottom crust. For another, it avoids the need for trying to tediously tuck foil around the crust edges to protect from over-browning.)

This pie has really fantastic flavor. Don’t wait for the holidays.

To make Burnt Sugar Pecan Pie: Replace the maple syrup and bourbon with 1/2 cup light corn syrup and 1/2 cup burnt sugar syrup. To make burnt sugar syrup, see the directions here. You’ll need to start with about 3/4 cup sugar and an equal part water to come out with 1/2 cup burnt sugar syrup. Let syrup cool to room temperature before using in the recipe.

To make Molasses Pecan Pie: Replace the maple syrup and bourbon with 3/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 cup molasses.