Pecan Fudge Pie

1/2 cup butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
3 Tbsp. white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
9" pie crust

Melt butter and chocolate in top of double boiler or over low heat. Meanwhile, beat eggs until light. Beat syrup, sugar, salt and vanilla into eggs. Add the nuts. Now add slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Mix thoroughly and pour into an unbaked 9" pie crust. Bake at 350º for 25-35 minutes or until top is crusty and filling is set but soft inside. Do not over bake. Pie should shake like custard so it will not be too stiff when cool.
Serve plain or with ice cream or whipped cream.

This is another wonderful dish from my Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts Co-Author, Lillian.

Lillian - The center of this may sink in a little and that is ok. It is also, very rich and so you can serve smaller pieces. You can substitute the home pastry with the pie crust found in the frozen foods section or those in the dairy section of your store. You can do so much with this, as you did. I usually serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. The whipped cream can contain a bit of shaved chocolate or flavorings that will work well with the chocolate. You can just use pecans or almonds to top the whipped cream.

Martha - I made 2 of these pies but made a change in both. By thinking with my taste buds I decided to use up a couple of ingredients that needed to be used. One was some large flake coconut, the other was a partial jar of dried peanuts. I also had some chocolate chips that needed to be used but not enough for 2 pies. This is what I did. The recipe calls for 3 squares of chocolate, I used 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of peanuts one pie. I had about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips left so I made up the difference using white chocolate chips and added a cup of coconut instead of the nuts. I'm not a chocolate lover but I have to say that both of these pies came out making even me want more. I did find that this makes just a bit more than 1 pie filling so I poured the leftover in a small baking dish that I lined with vanilla wafers and baked it along with the full size pie, checking it after about 20 minutes.

The pie on the top is peanut, the one on the bottom is coconut.