What I absolutely loved about making this pie is that I didn't have to go to the grocery store for a single ingredient. Granted I keep an abnormal amount of baking supplies stocked in my cabinets all the time, but it was still nice to be able to whip this thing together without spending a dime. (well I had to buy the ingredients at some point - but still!)
Anyway, this was the first pecan pie I have ever made and ohmagoodness was it good. I wanted to make sure I found a recipe that didn't use corn syrup - because one. ew. I've used it before but it just seems so artificial. and two - I didn't have any corn syrup on hand. I also had to decide how I wanted to arrange my pecans. I read online that if you put the pecans at the bottom, they eventually would rise to the top. Although this system may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, I thought it would taste better if the pecans were more incorporated into the the gooey mixture (the only part I would eat growing up). After trying it out, I think this was the best decision. It is pretty to decoratively arrange the pecans on top, but then they don't get the added sweetness of being submerged in the gooey goodness.
On another note, I have literally eaten about half of this pie by myself so if ANYONE wants a piece please come over to our apartment and it take off my hands!
I also want to apologize in advance for the crappiness of my play-by-play shots. It was late and the lighting was wack.
This recipe is verry loosey based off of one I found in Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts.
The Crust
Ingredients
1 ¼ cup of all-purpose flour
1 stick of unsalted butter
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ tablespoons ice water
Pinch of cinnamon
Directions
1. Start by freezing the stick of butter for about 15 minutes. Since I didn’t have a food processor, I grated the butter with a cheese grater while it was still hard from the freezer. Do this quickly because you don’t want the butter to soften. If it becomes too soft during this process, pop the grated butter back in the freezer for a couple more minutes.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well (flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon)
3. Add the butter with the dry ingredients. Pinch the ingredients together until it looks like course meal.
4. Add a tablespoon of water at a time and continue to pinch with your fingertips until the dough just barely comes together.
5. Pour the somewhat crumbly dough onto plastic wrap. Pack it tightly into a disk, loosely rewrap the dough and then refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. On a lightly flour work surface, roll out the dough until it’s big enough to fit your pie pan. To pick it up off the counter, roll the dough onto your rolling pin and the roll it back onto the pan.
Filling
I got this recipe from allrecipes.com and didn't make any changes. I mean 1,051 say its 5 stars so is it really worth making a change just so I can call it my own? I don't think so.
Ingredients
1 cup light brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pecans, plus more for decoration
1. Start by melting the butter and preheating the oven to 400˚
2. With an electric mixer, blend the eggs until foamy.
3. With a spatula or whisk, stir together the butter and eggs.
4. Stir in the sugars and flour.
5. Lastly, mix in the milk and vanilla
6. Pour the crushed pecans into the bottom of the crust (apparently they are supposed to rise to the top during baking) then pour filling on top. Add whole pecans on top for decoration.
7. To prevent your crust from burning, cut out a rim with tin foil. I actually didn’t have a very dramatic crust edge because I didn’t have much overhang, but I did it anyway just in case.
8. Begin by baking for 10 minutes at 400˚ and then lower the temperature to 350˚ and bake for an additional 30 or 40 minutes.
