Homemade Pecan Pie Recipe
Pie adapted from SeriousEats, crust adapted from Claire Saffitz' book, What's for Dessert
Equipment
Ingredients
For the pie crust
- 3 3/4 C 450g Unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp table salt
- 20 Tbsp unsalted butter chilled and cut into thin pieces
- 1 C ice water
For the filling and assembly
- 3 eggs beaten
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 C light corn syrup
- 1/4 C brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp melted butter cooled
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 C toasted pecans 2 C roughly chopped and 1 cup left whole
Instructions
Prepare the pie dough
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (191°C).
- Mix the flour, sugar, and salt for the dough in a bowl.
- Add the cold butter pieces to the dry ingredients and toss to coat. Use your pingers to press the flour into the butter pieces, creating little butter/flour flakes and pieces.
- Make a well in the flour and add ⅔ C of ice water. Combine gently with a fork until loosely combined, clumpy, and still with some dry spots. Tip the bowl out onto the counter and chop through it several times with a bench scraper to break up the pieces and combine things. Chop and re-pile until there are no visible dry spots and no piece of butter is larger than a pea. If any floury areas remain, drizzle with a half teaspoon of water and chop it in.
- Pat the dough into a square, then roll it with a pin until it is ¾" thick. Cut the dough in half and stack one half on top of the other half. Flour under the stack and roll it to flatten and lengthen it a bit. Cut it in half again, the other direction, and do the same thing again. Lift it around the edges with the bench scraper to flour underneath. Flour the top a little if needed, and roll into a ¾" thick rectangle. Cut it in half again across its short axis. You now have 2 portions of dough.
- Form the dough into a disk and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper. Chill in the fridge, 2 hours.
- Unwrap the dough, roll it until it can cover your pie pan with some excess. Put the dough in the pan and crimp the edges how you like. Line the crust with foil and weigh it down with whatever you use for pie weights.
- Bake the crust for 40 minutes. (Use your TimeStick!) Remove from the oven, take the weights out, and prepare to fill.
Make the filling and bake the pie
- In a bowl, whisk together all of the filling ingredients except the nuts. Whisk until very well combined.
- Scatter the chopped nuts in the pie crust. Add the custard and carefully place the whole nuts atop the custard in a design that pleases you.
- Bake the pie for 40 minutes, turning halfway through. If the crust starts to brown too much, shield it with foil.
- Starting at 40 minutes, check the temperature often with your Thermapen ONE until the temperature reaches 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C). The pie will likely take about 1 hour to bake.
- The filling should be firm but jiggly and a bit puffy. Let the pie cool overnight before serving.
- Serve!
