Walnut pie

Forget about pecan pie. You heard me. Tonight I tried to recreate something a caterer had brought into work recently. It was walnut pie with chocolate crust. I am a pie freak and it was one of the best I've ever eaten. So I've been thinking I need to try and make it for Thanksgiving and tonight was the test run. It came out pretty good if I say so myself.

I started with the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook pecan pie recipe and made a few adjustments as follows.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• ²⁄₃ cup sugar
• dash salt
• 1 cup corn syrup (the recipe called for dark, I used light, it's fine)
• ¹⁄₃ cup butter, melted
• 1 (rounded) cup walnut halves (I used English walnuts - I think black walnuts would be interesting)
• 1 Oreo crust (or chocolate graham cracker crust)
• 1 tsp maple flavoring (instead of vanilla)
• ½ cup shredded coconut (optional, but then use a flat 1 cup of walnuts)

Directions

Preheat over to 350° with a cookie sheet on the middle rack. Lightly beat the eggs, add the sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Stir in the corn syrup and melted butter, mixing well. Stir in the walnuts. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake on the cookie sheet for 50 minutes, immediately turning temp to 325°. Cool on wire rack. The cookbook says it makes 10 servings. Morgann and I are thinking it is probably more like five or six. :)