Ask Evan: What Can I Substitute for Corn Syrup in a Pecan Pie?

Every week I answer a question from a Good Food listener. You can email me a question to goodfood@kcrw.com, leave one on Facebook or add one in the comments section here. This week’s came from a listener on Facebook:

I’m getting ready to make your Chocolate Espresso Pecan Pie, as I do ever Thanksgiving and Christmas. But this year I’m trying to avoid corn syrup, mostly out of fear of GMO’s. Do you know of any alternatives that would work?

When we talk about taking corn syrup out of a candy or baking recipe then we have to talk about the role of invert sugar. From Wikipedia: “Invert Sugar is a mixture of glucose and fructose; it is obtained by splitting sucrose into these two components. Compared with its precursor, sucrose, inverted sugar is sweeter and its products tend to remain moister and are less prone to crystallisation” Another invert sugar is Cane Syrup as in Lyle’s Golden Syrup from the UK. It’s an invert sugar made from cane sugar. To invert a sugar requires either a thermal or chemical process. If you aren’t into that, use honey but cut the amount down to ½ cup. And substitute brown for white sugar if you like a deeper flavor.