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Mini Pecan Pies have everything I love about a classic pecan pie: a flaky crust, gooey sweet filling and plenty of crunchy pecans, but they’re baked in a muffin tin so they’re easier to serve and eat. You can make them truly bite sized in a mini muffin pan or a little larger in a standard muffin pan!
Pecan Pie is a big deal in my family: my mom’s been making the same classic pecan pie every Thanksgiving my entire life, and my daughter loves it so much she asked for brown sugar pecan pie for her birthday one year! Turning that family favorite into individual pies makes so much sense, especially if you’re making a dessert table or want something easier to serve than a whole pie.
After making so many pies over the years, I’ve learned that little details matter with mini versions: chop the pecans small so they fit into the crusts, don’t over fill them, and let the pies cool completely before removing from the pan. You can even use a store bought crust or my homemade all butter crust, both work great!
Mini Pecan Pie Ingredients
- It’s important to use a homemade crust or a refrigerated one, not a frozen crust. You need to be able to roll out the dough to cut small circles to fit in the muffin pans, and frozen crusts are too delicate for that.
- This recipe uses corn syrup, because that’s the traditional way I’ve always done it. Light or dark corn syrup work in this recipe.
- Because we’re making mini pies, it’s best to chop the pecans small so they fit in the pies.
- Pecan pies are one of the easiest to put together because there are so few ingredients. You just need eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in addition to the syrup and pecans!
Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions. See below the recipe card for even more information: process shots, variations, FAQ and more.
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Dorothy’s Expert Tips
- If you want small pies (regular size cupcake pan): Use a cookie cutter or glass about 3-inches in diameter (will make about 12-14 pies).
- For Mini muffin pan pies: about 2-inches diameter (about 24-28 pies).
- Spray your measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray before measuring out your Karo and the corn syrup will pour right out!
- Grease the pans with nonstick cooking spray that has flour in it OR grease the pans with butter or shortening.
- Don’t overfill the pies to avoid the filling bubbling over and sticking.
- Cool pies COMPLETELY before removing from the pan or they’ll fall apart. Use a butter knife to help loosen the edges of the cooled pies and they should pop right out.
Mini Pecan Pies Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2 pie crusts, from scratch or a pack of two
- ⅔ cup (158 ml) Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
- 2 large eggs
- ⅔ cup (134g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (14g) melted butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini muffin pans or cupcake tins with flour nonstick cooking spray or grease and flour them.
- Working with one pie crust at a time, unroll each crust. Use a large round cookie cutter (about 2-inches diameter for mini pies and 3-inches for cupcake sized) to cut circles of pie dough, rerolling as needed.
- Press each circle in the bottom of the prepared muffin pan.
- Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Spoon a bit of filling into each pie crust. Be careful not to overfill them.
- Baking time: Mini pies 20-25 minutes, Cupcake sized pies 25-30 minutes.
- As soon as they come out of the oven, check to see if any filling spilled over to the pan. If so, use a knife to carefully scrape it away from the pan. The filling will harden as it cools making it hard to remove the pies from the pan. Cool completely before removing from the pan, use a butter knife to help loosen each pie.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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How to make Mini Pecan Pies
- For mini pies, you need two pie crusts. Use a round cookie cutter to cut circles of dough. You can also use a glass or mason jar lid, or anything that’s the correct size.
- It’s so easy to just whisk all the ingredients together.
- Be sure to coat all the pecans in the mixture. Dry pecans will burn.
- Fill mini pies with 1 tablespoon filling and standard cupcake size with 2 tablespoons of filling.
FAQ
Mini pecan pies in mini muffin pans take 20-25 minutes to bake, in regular muffin pans they’ll take about 25-30 minutes.
Make sure to spray you pans with nonstick baking spray (the kind with flour in it). Let them cool completely before removing and they should pop right out when loosened gently with a butter knife.
Freeze pies in a single layer in an airtight container or bag, for up to 3 months.
Both work interchangeably. Dark Karo will give a deeper, richer taste but either one will work.
As long as you follow the recipe and bake them long enough they shouldn’t be runny in the center. If you’re making a regular size or deep dish pie and you’re having trouble with a soupy center, try adding 1 tablespoon cornstarch the next time you bake it. The cornstarch will help smooth out the filling.
No words….
Very good family love
Hi, I do not use corn syrup, so can I use your brown sugar pecan pie filling to make these and for all your other pecan pie recipes? Or can I use maple syrup, golden syrup or cane syrup? Thanks
Really delicious! I don’t care for pecan pie, but my husband loves it so I made these for him today. These may have converted me into a pecan pie fan because they are so tasty! Husband loved them as well!
Hello! These look to die for!!!
I would like to use the mini-crust concept for little French silk pies for Thanksgiving! Is that possible? If so, how would you blind-bake them?
I might do another kind of pie in them, like cranberry. Most in my family don’t like pecan pie, unfortunately!
For mini pies that you’ll fill later you can do them one of two ways: press them in, chill the pan, then poke the bottoms and sides of each with a fork. OR you can bake them on an inverted pan – see this post: https://www.crazyforcrust.com/almond-joy-mini-pies/
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