My friend Erik had a spectacularly awful week last week. I asked what I could do to help. He requested that I bake him a pecan pie. Of course I was happy to oblige.

Now, like any foodie worth her salt (pun definitely intended), I am well-aware of the problems with high fructose corn syrup , a product almost always called for in pecan pie recipes, so I had to do some tinkering to figure out how to make this pie corn syrup-free. The result was a lovely, gooey confection that didn’t have the sickeningly sweet aftertaste that some pecan pies leave. Success.