Recipe: Sugar Free Chocolate Pecan Pie

My dad is diabetic, but he has quite the sweet tooth. So I made this pecan pie for him for our family Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

One 9-inch deep dish premade pie crust

1-1/3 cups pecans, roasted (if yours are unroasted, heat the oven to 350, and in a small bowl, mix 1 tbsp melted butter together with your pecans until well coated.  Then bake on a cookie sheet for 5-7 minutes or until you can smell them cooking.  Be sure to keep an eye on them, as they can easily burn) 

Four eggs, (egg substitute equal to four eggs)

1/3 cup unsalted butter

¾ cup Splenda (sugar substitute), with 1 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder – unsweetened (NOTE: original recipe called for 1/4 cup, but since I used maple syrup, I added extra to make sure the chocolate flavor would be more predominant.  If you are able to find the sugar-free corn syrup, you can probably stick with just 1/4 cup…or go for 1/2 cup if you want it to be extra chocolately!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch salt

1 cup light sugar-free corn syrup, or sugar free maple syrup (my store didn’t have sugar free corn syrup, so I used maple)

Directions:

Heat your oven to 325 and pre-bake your pie shell for about 5-10 minutes (I’m recommending this because I DIDN’T do it & the bottom of the crust was still a little doughy when we served it.)  Set crust aside to cool and spread the roasted pecans across the bottom of the crust.  Break into pieces if the halves seem too large.  Turn your oven up to 400 degrees F

In a small bowl, beat eggs with a fork until well mixed.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, Splenda and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa and the salt. Gradually add to the egg mixture, making sure all is mixed well. Then stir in the sugar-free corn syrup. Mixture will be thick. Pour mixture carefully over the pecans in the crust. If any pecans do not get completely covered, push them down with a spoon.

Let pie stand for 2 or 3 minutes—if bubbles come to the top, pop them with a toothpick.

 

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then, reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.

Remove the pie and add a pie shield to the edges to prevent burning.

Then bake for another 35-40 minutes, or until the edges are cracked and risen, but the center slightly jiggles when shaken lightly.

Serve with whipped cream or (my fave) Dreyer’s Slow Churned lower sugar ice cream.  We opted for good ol’ vanilla.  The pie ended up being wonderfully rich, but because of the extra chocolate, the pecans didn’t float all the way up to the top (they were hidden just under the surface).  The top looked like a brownie, and the pie had almost a chocolate mousse flavor.  The plain vanilla ice cream helped cut some of the richness.  Everyone really liked it.

Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition Info:

Calories 206.8 (Hershey’s recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie without low-sugar alternatives is 390 calories per slice)

  Total Fat 17.0 g

  Saturated Fat 4.2 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 3.3 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 7.3 g

  Cholesterol 86.7 mg

  Sodium 190.8 mg

  Potassium 105.1 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 14.6 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.2 g

  Sugars 1.8 g

  Protein 4.4 g

Makes a great reward for getting all those Christmas decorations out of the attic & up on the tree! :D

Did you get your Christmas decor up this weekend?

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