After having been shut out of buying Maple Walnut Pie for THREE years at the Craftsbury Antiques & Uniques Festival, at last I decided to make my own to bring to the Thanksgiving potluck.I made Cream Cheese Pie Crust (mine was from the 1997 Joy of Cooking), which I'll immodestly admit was the best crust I've made ever. It turns out that following recipes can actually pay off. So much for my usual ADHD approach to baking.
It's hard to say just why Maple Walnut Pie is so much more delicious than my old favorite pecan pie, but it just is. Of course they're very similar, but the smoky maple taste and the slightly tannic, bitter walnuts of this one create a sort of accessible complexity that is just terrific. (The mini one in the picture, by the way, is one made with pumpkin seeds for my friend who's allergic to nuts. I would have pan-toasted the seeds first except it was Thanksgiving morning and there was zero chance of this level of attention to detail by then.)
It seemed the right thing to choose Yankee Magazine's recipe for such a Vermont-y seeming dessert, and I think I'll be making this often.
I agree: maple walnut is better than pecan. That's saying a lot, too, because I love pecan pie. It probably has to do with maple syrup being so much yummier than corn syrup, though I've seen pecan pie recipes that use maple in place of corn syrup.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I've been looking into no syrup pecan pies, which sound yummy. I may try one of those recipes for a chocolate bourbon pecan pie soon.