[Photographs: Vicky Wasik. Video: Serious Eats Video]

Good day, readers.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to track down, secure, and bake Agent BraveTart's Impossible Pecan Pie recipe. Our intelligence indicates that Ms. Parks, as she's known in the field, created this recipe for her cookbook several years ago, but shortly before it was deployed, her editor decided it posed too great a risk for home cooks everywhere. Operation Impossible Pecan Pie was shut down; the only evidence of its existence buried under an avalanche of highly classified paperwork. All involved agreed it was never to be published anywhere, ever.

The story should have ended there, but a mole in our organization* leaked the existence of the recipe to the media. Ever since, eager bakers from every corner of the globe have battled to get their hands on the recipe. Their hope: To tame its wild and uncontrollable power for their own nefarious appetites. Unfortunately, few understand the extent of the danger involved, and those that have found it have, in almost all cases, been destroyed by this foolish pursuit.

*Ed, everyone. It was Ed.

Meanwhile, we have our own operatives on the case. I, Agent Gritzer, have been in hot pursuit recently, and if there's a video above, it means I have already located the recipe, in which case, you should just watch. As always, should you be caught or compromised, Agent BraveTart and the larger organization will disavow any knowledge of your actions*. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.

* Translation: If you find the recipe and have trouble, Stella ain't gonna help you one bit.

[Editor's Note: You will notice that there is no recipe for the pie here. That is not a mistake. Stella has vowed to never publish this recipe because she wants no part in trying to help the thousands upon thousands of bakers who, inevitably, would come to her begging for troubleshooting assistance. (Stella, in case you don't know, goes to great lengths to help everyone she can with her published recipes.) We know it may seem unfair to shine the spotlight on a pie recipe we're not going to give to you, but them's the breaks. It is out there, though. If you're resourceful, maybe you can find it. Just don't ask Stella for it, and if you do find it, remember this: You're on your own.]

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