Tara Royer Steele knows her way around a pie. The creator of the Texas Trash Pie, she began baking when her parents, Bud and Karen Royer, established the famous Royers Round Top Cafe. The quaint, 10-table restaurant sold only apple and buttermilk pies when it first opened in 1987 in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town between Austin and Houston known for its biannual Antiques Fair.
Today, Steele bakes 20,000 pies a year to fulfill mail orders and stock Royers Pie Haven, her spinoff shop near the original cafe still run by her family. Nearly 40 sweet years since she got her start, Steele is bringing a taste of Royers into home kitchens with her recently-released cookbook, Keep Your Fork, There’s Pie!
Among the book’s 75 recipes—including variations on the slapdash Texas Trash and Steele’s second-most famous, the Junkberry Pie—is a bourbon chocolate pecan pie made sweeter by a good cause.
The crust recipe belongs to Steele but she credits Mark Devlin for the bourbon chocolate pecan pie filling. For years, Devlin baked his favorite pie to give out to friends and clients at Christmastime. Then in 2020, his colleague, Moises Tobias, died of stomach cancer, leaving behind three children. “I suddenly realized why I’d been baking this pie,” Devlin says.
He went on to create Mo Pie U, a nonprofit that raises college tuition assistance to children who have lost a parent to cancer. During Mo Pie U’s first pie drive, Devlin fulfilled orders himself. But after three weeks and 70 pies, he took a trip to Royers Pie Haven in search of help. When he saw “Eat Mo’ Pie” on Steele’s pie boxes, which happened to be his sign off on thank you notes, Devlin said to his wife: “I think we found our baker.”
With the pies now produced at Bake Shop, Steele’s commercial kitchen in Brenham, Devlin says that “what took me three weeks to do, they can do in an hour.” All the better for the nonprofit’s biggest fundraiser, which this year aims to sell 2,000 pies.
The bourbon chocolate pecan pies have turned into “pies with a purpose,” Devlin says. “When someone is going through a cancer crisis and racking up medical bills, at least someone can know they don’t have to worry about their kids’ college. That’s rewarding.”
It’s a win-win for Steele, too.
“If we get to make pie—which we love to do—and it can help make somebody’s dreams come true, or help them with their goals or passions,” she says, “then I’m absolutely for it.”
Mo Pie U Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
Makes one 9-inch pie
Ingredients:
9-inch unbaked pie shell
2⁄3 cup chocolate chips
1½ cups pecan halves
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 oz. bourbon
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll out the dough ball until it is ¼ inch thick and lay it in a 9-inch pie pan. Press dough into the base of the pie pan and crimp the edge with your two forefingers. Spread the chocolate chips and pecans evenly in the bottom of the shell. Using an electric mixer, combine the sugar, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add in the eggs and mix well. Next, add the butter and mix until smooth. Finally, add in the corn syrup and bourbon, pouring them in slowly while the mixer is on low speed. When the filling is mixed well, pour it over the chocolate chips and pecans in the pie shell. Bake for 12 minutes, then turn down to 275°F and bake an additional 64 minutes or until bubbly and the crust is golden. You can also test it with a knife, which should come out clean. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before eating or freezing.
Recipe courtesy Keep Your Fork, There’s Pie!
