Pecan Pie

My favorite part of holiday dinners are the dessert (no surprise there). My favorite pies are pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Last Thanksgiving, we strayed from these classics to make a delicious chocolate pie. This year, however, I will be celebrating Turkey day in Paris avec ma petite soeur, so we will be knee deep in macarons and croissants. Since I won't be having a brussel sprout, sweet potato, turkey feast, I will leave you with a delish pecan pie recipe. Maybe I'll make some for the plane ride over.
One year I'd like to go to a Thanksgiving dinner with so many people there is reason to bake two pies, but until then, it will be a battle of pumpkin versus pecan. My sister doesn't like pumpkin pie, so we usually end up making something else.

Hoorah for food processors - they make making pie crust easy as...wait for it...pie (groan. bad joke). I'm normally a fan of pies with graham cracker crusts because they are pretty easy to make...but I'm working on improving my normal pie crust too.

Best served with vanilla ice cream and no little sisters around to hog any slices!

{The lighting here doesn't do this pie justice!}

Pecan Pie, Recipe adapted from the New Brooklyn Cookbook

Makes one 9" pie

This recipe is actually a pecan pie sundae recipe by the owner of Buttermilk Channel, Doug Crowell. We nixed the sundae part and just served it as pie, with ice cream on the side.

Ingredients

For the Piecrust

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 8 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and kept in the fridge until needed. Remember, for pie crust, the colder the butter, the better! 
• 3-4 tbsp. ice water

For the Filling

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp. molasses
• 1 tbsp. bourbon
• 1 2/3 cups chopped pecans

Prepare the Piecrust

Place the flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor with a metal blade; pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the ice water (when I made it, I used 3 tablespoons), adding just 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse. Pinch a small amount between your fingers, add just enough water for the dough to hold. Turn the mixture out onto a clean surface and shape into a disk, handling as little as possible. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. 

On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a 12-inch round. This is probably the most annoying part of pie-crust making for me, I always end up messing it up and making the dough weird/rip in weird places. My mom helped with this since rolling out pie dough is similar to rolling out chapati dough, and she is a pro at chapati dough.

Place in a 9-inch glass or metal pie plate. Gently press the dough against the bottom and up the sides of the plate. Trim the dough edge (and sample the raw pie crust dough, if absolutely necessary). Freeze the pie shell for 30 minutes. 

For the Filling

Combine the sugar and melted butter in the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg fully before adding the next. Add the corn syrup, molasses, and bourbon, and mix to combine. Fold in the chopped pecans and set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill with dry beans or pie weights. Bake for 6 minutes, or until the shell begins to set. Remove the parchment paper and beans/weights and bake for another 3 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and set the pie shell aside to cool. 

Pour the pecan pie filling into the shell. Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet (it will spill over!) and bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until the filling no longer looks liquid and is just a tad jiggly. Check the pie after 50 minutes, if the crust is getting too brown, cover it with foil. Allow the pie to cool completely before serving. 

We sliced and served this with a home made dairy-free vanilla ice cream, but not as a sundae. Yum!