Pumpkin Pecan Pie

This was one of my projects over the weekend. I've actually been meaning to make this pie since Thanksgiving but thing after thing had come up, preventing me from doing so. Things such as making the Thanksgiving turkey for my first time! And you know, it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. The hardest things were getting up 5 hours early to start cooking the turkey and not being able to peek at its progress since it was in a covered turkey roaster. But it turned out deliciously nonetheless .   
    But enough about the turkey, this is about the pie. Now, to the naked eye this just looks like an every day pecan pie. But, lo and behold, when you cut into it and dish out a piece, it's actually a pumpkin pecan pie. Woah! I didn't even know that kind of pie existed until Hubby thought it up one day. Turns out, a lot of other people had had the same indecision between pumpkin and pecan pie so had settled it by making a two in one!! The original recipe can be found HERE, but I have also included it below, in case you don't feel like opening a new window.  :)

 

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, divided
• 1 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• dash salt
• 2/3 cup light or dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (I ended up just leaving my pecans halved and didn't chop them up at all.  I think it turned out just as good.  Plus my Mama is a big pecan fan.)
• 1 prepared deep dish pie crust*

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. *If using a frozen pie crust, do not thaw; preheat a baking sheet in the oven and place the pie on the cookie sheet to bake.  (But be sure not to forget it in there.  It only takes a couple of minutes to dethaw in that hot over!)
1. In small bowl, combine one egg, pumpkin, 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Spread in pie crust.
2. In medium bowl, beat remaining two eggs slightly. Stir in corn syrup and remaining 2/3 cup sugar, the butter and vanilla; stir until well blended. Stir in pecans.
3. Carefully spoon over pumpkin mixture. (Careful not to overfill.  Because I'd initially left my crust in the over for too long a small side piece had broken off, leaving a hole for the filling to pour right out of.  I ended up putting a pecan in the hole to plug it up. I don't pride myself on being the tidiest cook.)
4. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until filling is set around edge.
5. Cool pie completely on wire rack. (This was the hardest step.  The pie smelled so good and we wanted to eat it right then and there!  though we didn speed the process up a bit by putting it in the fridgerator too cool more quickly.  It still tasted just as delicious!)