Pecan Cream Pie

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Inspired by the Amish-style pecan cream pie served at Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury, Indiana, this absolute dream of a dessert marries a somewhat traditional pecan pie base with brown sugar custard, a pillow of whipped cream, and crunchy candied nuts.

That base is jammed full of chopped pecans, but the real secret ingredient is a dollop of sour cream. The tart dairy works twofold: first, helping to prevent crystallization, and second, keeping the pie from becoming overly sweet. A bigger dollop of sour cream goes into the whipped topping, giving it noticeable tang. This is another point of flavor balance, but it also stabilizes it, so that it doesn’t weep or dissolve on your Thanksgiving buffet.

A few tricks get you to the multiple layers in as little time as possible. First, you’ll mix up most of the filling for the pecan layer, then steal about 1 Tbsp. of it to toss with the butter-toasted nuts for the topping. (You can make the candied pecans up to 3 days ahead.) As for those buttered nuts: Once they’re out of the pan, feel free to whip up the custard in the same pan (which can be done up to 2 days ahead). All that said, it’s also totally possible to pull off this entire pecan cream pie recipe in the course of an afternoon.