Southern Buttermilk Pecan Pie (Vintage Recipe)

🧾 Ingredients

Use the real stuff in buttermilk pie recipes. Store-bought buttermilk is thicker, tangier, and more acidic than homemade buttermilk that you make with vinegar. Adding vinegar or lemon juice to milk will NOT work in this recipe!!!!

🔪How to make buttermilk pecan pie

Four overhead photos in a grid with text overlay, highlighting the main steps to make buttermilk pie, including: wet ingredients in a bowl, pie filling in a pie shell, and an unbaked pie topped with pecans.

Add the sugar, softened butter, and flour to the eggs in a large bowl and beat until smooth.

Add the buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to the egg mixture and beat until smooth.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the prepared pie crust.

Sprinkle pecans on top of the pie filling in a single layer and bake.

📖 Recipe

📖 Variations

Make your own homemade food processor pie crust or use a store-bought crust from the grocery store.

You can even experiment with a graham cracker crust if you're in the mood for one.

Use packed light brown sugar instead of white sugar for a hint of caramelized flavor in your pie filling.

Swap the vanilla extract with vanilla bean paste, bourbon, or rum to jazz up the flavor a little more!

Creamy, tangy, and decadent! This is a unique pecan pie that checks all the boxes any time of the year! No time to bake pie? Try this 10-minute pecan pie cobbler recipe!

A buttermilk pecan pie with a large slice removed to a plate in the background. The interior of the pie shows pie crust topped with a buttermilk layer which is topped with pecans.

💭 Things to know

Make sure the butter and eggs come to room temperature. This helps you cream the butter into the egg mixture more smoothly.

We combine the flour, sugar, and eggs first before adding any buttermilk or lemon juice so the acidity doesn’t curdle the eggs.

You'll know your delicious pie is done when an instant thermometer reads 180 degrees F in the center or when a sharp knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.

This buttermilk pecan pie recipe uses a deep dish pie plate, which holds about two more cups than a regular one. Deep dish pie plates usually measure 9” wide by 2 to 2 ¼” deep.

Stir the pecans while toasting them because they burn quickly!

Pie tip 101: let it cool completely to set before digging in.

Don't let anything go to waste! Use up your leftover buttermilk in one of these awesome recipes.

👩‍🍳 FAQs

Do I have to chop the pecans or can I just use halves?

For faster prep time, don’t chop the pecan halves. However, they take up more space than chopped pecans, so you’ll need to add an extra ¼ cup of pecan halves to equal the amount called for chopped.

Can I use heavy cream instead of buttermilk?

Nope. Some recipes give the option of creating homemade buttermilk with cream or milk and lemon juice or vinegar, but it’s not the same as true buttermilk. The real stuff is thicker, tangier, and more acidic than homemade buttermilk. Learn more about buttermilk here.