A mini sugar-free pecan pie that serves just two. It’s the ultimate keto dessert recipe for the holidays and so easy to make. 6 ingredients and 35 minutes start to finish!
Pecan pie has always ranked up there as one of my all time favorite desserts, and the holidays wouldn’t be complete without it. And while I have an absolutely fabulous full-size Keto Pecan Pie, I thought it would be fun to do an easy small batch version.
Because let’s face it, pecan pie is a big dessert that takes a fair bit of time and serves 10 to 12 people. If it’s just a small gathering, or if most of your family doesn’t enjoy a rich gooey pie filled with pecans, then it’s not always worth all the work.
Plus I adore that gooey, pecan-studded custard filling so much, I wanted an easier way to be able to whip it up any time the cravings strike. And somehow in the fall, they seem to strike fairly often.
Love this sugar-free pecan pie recipe? I’ve got more where that came from! Check out my Keto Pecan Pie Protein Bars for an easy energy snack. My Pecan Pie Cheesecake is also a fan favorite. And the low carb Pecan Pie Bundt Cake makes a stunning holiday dessert recipe.
How can pecan pie be keto friendly?
Excellent question, my dear reader. Excellent question indeed. Thankfully, pecans themselves are very low in carbohydrates, and in conventional pie, it’s the crust and the sugary filling that makes it so unhealthy.
This easy pecan pie recipe does away with the crust altogether, so the carb savings are huge there. Of course, my easy keto pie crust is pretty low carb as it is, but this mini dessert for two doesn’t need any crust at all.
Swapping out the sugar for low carb sweeteners is a trickier matter, since no keto sweetener behaves just like sugar. But I find that a combination of both Swerve Brown and some Bocha Sweet helps me achieve the perfect gooey center with minimal carb impact.
Tips for Easy Pecan Pie for Two
If you watch my video, you will see how simple this mini pecan pie is to make. But there are some tricks to getting that perfect gooey center so I want to give you all the best tips I can.
The mix of sweeteners is critical: Swerve Brown gives you that deeper caramel color and flavor, and the Bocha Sweet helps keep the filling from re-crystallizing as it cools. I know many people will ask about substitutes so I will try my best to answer that here and now.
What to do if you don’t have Swerve Brown: You can use any erythritol based sweetener plus ½ teaspoon molasses. Don’t freak out, that tiny bit of molasses has only 2.5 grams of carbs so it only adds 1.25g per serving.
What to do if you don’t have Bocha Sweet: There are several other sweeteners that will keep your filling soft and gooey. Both allulose and xylitol are good replacements here.
Keep the filling on low heat: All you really need to do here is melt the butter and whisk in the sweeteners until smooth. Then immediately remove from the heat. Because you are going to whisk in an egg and you don’t want it to curdle and cook with the heat.
Use chopped pecans: Because this pie for two is so small, chopped pecans create a more cohesive filling. But I always save a few pecan halves for decorating the top.
Don’t overbake! The outside edges of this little easy pecan pie bake and set quickly, and they puff up a lot. But you want the center to not be quite set when you take it out of the oven. It should even look a little liquid. Because this is in a ceramic dish, it continues to bake for a little while when it’s out of the oven.
Want to take this easy pecan pie over the top? Try adding a few sugar-free chocolate chips when it’s still warm, and some keto whipped cream. It’s pure heaven!
More delicious Keto Thanksgiving desserts:
- Keto Pecan Pie Bars
- Pumpkin Cream Pie
- Keto Pumpkin Roll
- Pumpkin Cake with Streusel Topping
- Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Easy Keto Pecan Pie
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup pecan halves, divided
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 1 ½ tablespoon Swerve Brown
- 1 ½ tbsp Bocha Sweet
- ¼ teaspoon caramel extract or vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Set aside 6 to 8 pecan halves to top the pie, then use a sharp knife to chop the rest. Set aside while preparing the filling.
- In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and two sweeteners. Whisk until the butter is melted and the sweeteners are dissolved, about 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the egg, then stir in the chopped pecans. Pour the mixture into one 8-ounce ramekin or two 4-ounce ramekins. Place the reserved pecan halves decoratively on top.
- Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until the sides are set but the center is still wobbly. Remove and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
- Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream or some keto ice cream. Share with your favorite person!
Kathy Swigart says
the recipe doesn’t say when to add the vanilla so I put it in right before the eggs. I didn’t wait long enough before adding the eggs so they cooked slightly…so, I used my immersion blender to whisk them up.
Martie says
Made this tonight and topped with some sugar free ice cream. My husband said it was very good and that is high praise from him when it comes to any sweet item using the alternate sweeteners. I did use all swerve with some molasses because I hadn’t read the entire blogpost. Now I realize I have powdered and liquid Allulose that you suggest instead of the Bocha sweet, but which would work best in this?
Carolyn says
Powdered.
Terri says
I made this yesterday for Thanksgiving for my dad who is diabetic. he LOVED it and is still talking about it today.
Carolyn says
Hooray!!!
Bob says
Can this recipe be made for 6 by just 3x the ingredients? Using a 24 oz. baking dish?
Carolyn says
Without knowing the dimensions of the baking dish, I can’t say. But should scale up nicely.
Brenda says
Carol, I Love all of your recipes.
Carolyn says
Thank you!
Marlene says
I made this recipe tonight and, although I had high hopes, it did not pan out. It crystallized, even though I melted and whisked for about 6 minutes. It had a weird taste to it and tasted nothing like pecan pie. I have no idea what I did wrong. I followed the recipe, except that I used erythritol because that’s all I had. Before I started keto (about a month ago) I baked a lot and everything turned out pretty good. So far I am striking out on all the baked goods I have tried making on keto and I’m almost ready to give up.
Carolyn says
It didn’t pan out because you didn’t use the right sweeteners. Please read my blog post for more info. Specifically the tips section where it says this: The mix of sweeteners is critical: Swerve Brown gives you that deeper caramel color and flavor, and the Bocha Sweet helps keep the filling from re-crystallizing as it cools. I know many people will ask about substitutes so I will try my best to answer that here and now.
Rachel says
Oh my gosh. This is SO GOOD. I didn’t have too much hope because erythritol isn’t my favorite sweetener, but this didn’t have any of that cold feeling I usually get. My husband LOVES pecan pie and this absolutely hit the spot and I’m going to try the other suggested variations.
Rebecca Taylor says
I made this yummy recipe I followed the directions as written but didn’t realize until my husband and I were eating it that something was missing all I could taste in the filling was egg. I didn’t say a word to my husband about it because he was raving about how delicious it was. After cleaning up after our meal I looked back at the directions to see what I had left out, it was the extract!! The extract isn’t in the directions so I wrote it in so I won’t forget it next time.
Amanda says
I love this recipe, but yes, I wanted to say I almost did the same thing, leaving out the extract, because it’s in the ingredients list, but not the instructions. I yanked it out at the last minute when I saw the bottle of extract out in the counter, mixed it in and then redid the topping and popped it back in the oven.
Absolutely pitch perfect pecan pie, thanks Carolyn!