After 47 years on this earth I changed the standard Karo Pecan Pie recipe my granny made

I love Pecan Pie. It's one of my top 3 favorite deserts. My grandmother used to make it for us all the time when I was little and it reminds me of my childhood. She always used the recipe printed on the Karo Syrup bottle.

Standard Karo syrup pecan pie recipe:

1 cup Karo corn syrup (Light, dark, or a mix of both)
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups pecans
1 9" pie crust

Most recipes carry these ratios. I've seen some add additional flavor (I'm talking about you bourbon or maybe chocolate) and do fancy things like toast the pecans or brown the butter or substitute in some brown sugar. But for the most part the recipe ratios are pretty consistent.

As much as I love Pecan Pie it's one failing in my eyes is that it's sooooo sweet. I'm not usually a super sweet desert guy so the wife always thought my love for Pecan Pie was strange. I was looking up a bourbon pecan pie recipe one day to figure out how much bourbon people usually use in a bourbon pecan pie. In one of the recipe comments someone said they use only 1/2 the amount of sugar to make the pie less sweet. And 1/2 the amount of sugar in brown sugar makes it even more less sweet.

This is what I ended up making.

1 cup Karo corn syrup (1/2 Light 1/2 dark)
3 eggs
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Maker's Mark mini bottle
1 cup pecans coarsely chopped
Enough half pecans to cover the top arranged in a single layer
1 9" pie crust

Get the eggs to room temp. Mix eggs, syrup, sugar melted butter, vanilla extract, bourbon. Put chopped pecans in bottom of pie crust. Pour just enough filling to cover chopped pecans. Arrange pecans on top of filling. Pour rest of filling on pecans. Make sure all the pecans on top had filling poured over it and aren't dry. Bake 350 for 1 hour.

Best pecan pie I've ever had. I made it two more times (except had an opened bottle of bourbon so I didn't need the mini) and served it to other people and they have raved about how great the pie is. Bourbon is not overpowering at all. Very subtle. Without as much cane sugar overpowering everything with sweetness the flavor of the toasted pecans on top really come through. IF you think pecan pie could use a tad less sweetness try it with 1/2 cup of light brown sugar the next time you make one. Thank you random internet recipe commenter for recommended to half the amount of sugar. For me it's a game changer.