well, i finally did it! i made a pecan pie! everytime i make pumpkin and banoffee pies, i always have someone ask if i can make a pecan, so i have made one to see how it went. i even got pie weights for my birthday on monday after telling joseph for months on end that's what i wanted. my friend sophie and i share a birthday (she is beth's younger sister - the beth from madeline beth) and seeing as she and her husband have been in perth for a while now and we still haven't had them over for dinner, i thought out joint birthday was a good occasion, so yesterday we had them over for dinner and pecan pie seemed like a wonderful idea!
i found the recipe online (as always - thank heavens for the internet!) on
recipetin eats website and it was actually not too hard at all. fiddly, but not terrible. it was delicious and worth the effort though.
PECAN PIE
CRUST:
1 ¼ cups plain flour
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp white sugar
115g cold butter cut into cubes
2 ½ tbsp. ice cold water
PECANS:
1 ¼ cups pecans - enough to
decorate top
1 ¼ cups pecans for filling
FILLING:
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
60g melted butter
¾ cup golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
Instructions
PIE CRUST:
Place flour, salt and sugar in a
food processor. Pulse twice.
Scatter over butter. Pulse 5
times or until the largest pieces are the size of peas.
Turn
food processor on low and add 2.5 tbsp water, keep blitzing for 7 to 10 seconds
until it forms crumbly clumps. Pinch with your fingers - it should come
together - if not, add 1/2 tbsp water until it does. Don't blitz longer than 20
seconds.
Turn out crumbs onto work
surface, use hands to bring together into a ball then pat into a 1.5cm thick disc. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
PECANS:
Preheat oven to 160C fan forced
Scatter 1 1/4 cups pecans on
baking tray and bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until you smell them.
Remove from oven and roughly
chop. Set aside.
Remaining 1 1/4 cups don't need
toasting - they are for the top.
PIE CRUST ROLLLING OUT:
Dust work surface with flour.
Place dough on work surface, dust
top with flour. Roll out into 25cm circle, patching up cracks as required.
Roll the pastry onto your rolling
pin, then roll it out onto a 22cm pie
tin. Press in, then trim edges with scissors with a 1cm overhang.
Turn the edges under and press
down neatly. Crimp if desired.
Place 2 large pieces of baking
paper over the pie crust then fill with pie weights or dried beans or rice.
Weight is essential to avoid shrinking pastry.
Bake 20 minutes, then remove pie
weights and let the pastry cool for 5 minutes before filling.
FILLING:
Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add
remaining Filling ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Stir through chopped pecans.
Pour into crust - it should fill
it about 1 cm from the top (you may have excess if your pastry
shrank).
Top with whole pecans in desired
pattern.
BAKING:
Place
pie in oven. Bake for 50 minutes, checking at 40 minutes, until it doesn't
jiggle much when you shake it but the centre is still soft when you touch it
It
will be puffed and cracks will look extreme, but it will deflate as it cools.
feedback - the pastry was just horrendous. maybe if it wasn't the middle of summer and melting it would have been doable, but i had exactly zero luck with it. it was also so insanely sweet that it was ridiculous and i am a massive sweet tooth! if i do end up making it again, i think i'll use the pastry from my pumpkin pie, because at least i know that works and is reliable... or i could try making it in winter haha. definitely adding it to the list though. pecan pie? check!
