When you think of pecan pie, words like classic, delicious and warm usually come to mind. The word simple, however, does not.

One weekend this month, I embarked on the brave task of making a pecan pie by myself after I was inspired while leafing through the Baking Illustrated cookbook in my kitchen. Pecan pie seemed festive, and at a first glance, seemed easy to make, but I had no idea what was in store for me.

The ingredients were simple: pecans, flour, corn syrup, sugar, butter, shortening and a pinch of salt. It was not until I began to prepare the pie that I realized the amount of time I would need to put in to make this dessert.

Before even considering making the basic filling for the pie, I needed to bake the pie’s shell. This alone took up most of my Sunday afternoon. After the dough was made, it had to be refrigerated for a minimum of two hours, and then lined along the pie dish. Then the pie shell was frozen for an hour, and sat at room temperature for an additional 20 minutes. Only then was I finally allowed to bake the shell for the specified 30 minutes.

While the shell was baking in the oven, the recipe instructed me to make the filling. Thankfully, the filling was easy to make. The only difficult part was melting the butter in a bowl placed over boiling water in a saucepan and pouring the final mixture of pecans, butter, corn syrup and brown sugar into the pre-baked pie shell.

I returned the complete pie to the oven, where it cooked slowly for an hour. While baking, the pie’s aroma completely erased my frustration with the time-consuming preparation; the smell only hinted at the amazing taste yet to come.

Once the pie had cooled, my entire family gathered around it like moths to a flame. When the first bite was taken, the entire dinner table was silent. Each bite was delicious. I can still remember the taste of the pie, which made my labored feat that much more rewarding.

Although the recipe was a success, there were so many things I would have changed to make the recipe much easier to make. Instead of intensely working over a pre-baked pie shell for three hours plus, I could have just easily bought a refrigerated pie shell. Instead of complicating the simple task of melting butter, I could have just stuck the butter in the microwave.

After toiling over this labor intensive recipe, I searched for a simpler recipe that would still maintain the pecan pie’s classic nature, and I found one at Pecan Pie Recipes (www.pecanpierecipes.com) that created a much more undemanding using a store-bough pie shell. The only required effort is mixing all of the ingredients together in no necessary order.

All in all, if you’re looking for a Thanksgiving favorite to impress the family, pecan pie is an excellent choice for anybody.