Background:

One objective we're working toward in our household is to substitute honey in the place of table sugar (sucrose) as much as possible. For one, my honeybees produce enough honey to last us a long time so it makes economic sense, but also it is better for you.

While it is true that honey and sucrose have mostly the same ingredients--namely fructose and glucose, there are significant differences. First, honey is a physical combination of fructose and glucose whereas in table sugar, those two ingredients are bonded together chemically which is more difficult for your body to digest. Second, honey also has a lot of other natural ingredients, antioxidants, pollen and enzymes that the honeybees put in there that table sugar doesn't offer you. Please note that the last statement assumes you are using natural, unfiltered honey instead of the pasteurized, force-filtered crap you buy off the generic shelf at your grocery store.

As a part of this quest, my wife experimented with pecan pie. She is a very good amateur baker and chef. While she didn't replace all of the table sugar, she did substitute a good quantity of it and came up with a great tasting honey pecan pie. Now if you really like pecan pie, be forewarned it won't taste exactly the same way your full sugar version will. It's still very good, it just won't be exactly the same. The honey taste will be noticeable, and for that reason I recommend using a lightly-colored, mild-tasting honey...clover honey would be a good choice. If you use a milder tasting honey, the flavor of the honey won't dominate the overall taste.

Ingredients:

(With apologies to my metric system friends I'm still using imperial measurements)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup honey
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of chopped pecans
1 unbaked pastry shell
1/2 cup pecan halves

Recipe:

Combine the flour and sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the lightly-beaten eggs, salt, butter, honey and vanilla. Add chopped pecans and mix. Pour into pastry shell. Arrange pecan halves around edge and center of pie.

Cover the pie crust edges loosely with foil and bake at 350º F for 25 minutes. Remove foil; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and finally store in the refrigerator.

Personal results:

My anecdotal evidence actually shows a preference for the honey pecan pie over the full sugar pecan pie at family gatherings. It is quite good, just make sure that if you try it to use a milder tasting honey.