Our new "regular" pecan pie.

Blueberry-pecan pie with fresh whipped cream and blueberries. © Ryan Schierling

This year marks a season of pie milestones for me. I'm finally feeling confident and consistent with the quality of my pie dough. I baked my first pumpkin pie completely from scratch in early November when our CSA delivered a perfect little sugar pumpkin to our door. I followed that up with what turned out to be an amazingly smooth and delicious little pie using buttercup (not butternut) squash instead of roasted pumpkin at Thanksgiving.

Then, over Christmas, I was launched into pecan pie territory.

When Ryan requested pecan pie (holy crap, he requested a dessert...!), I jumped at the chance to make one from scratch. After the holiday, I had enough pastry dough to make a second version and in the spirit of bourbon pecan pies I experimented a bit with a boozy-orange flavor complete with orange zest. I was quite fond of the extra depth and complexity the orange brought to the pie and it started me thinking about other flavors that complement pecans. It occurred to me that the intensely rich caramel custard of this pie would be wonderful flavored with blueberry. I mean, blueberries and pecans are a natural together. Why not as a pie? And so was born a new family recipe.

Pie-making has not exactly been my personal forte up to this point in life. But as it turns out, pecan pie is probably one of the simplest. It's been many, many years since I made a pecan pie, and when I did I'm pretty sure it was back when I was assumed it was standard operating procedure to use the regular recipe (you know... the one on the Karo bottle). This one, however, is straight-up sugar out of your pantry – the way it was meant to be – with eggs, butter, and pecans. Mix and pour into the pastry shell.