Friday, January 7, 2011

Southern Pecan Pie -- might think you're in New Orleans when you taste it!

This pie was one of the first really special recipes I ever perfected.  I started out in cooking as a girl making deserts for the family -- then, as now, I was motivated to cook what I wanted to EAT!  We recently took a trip to New Orleans, and I can honestly say, this is as good or better than any we had there --WONDERFUL!  It is essentially a Joy of Cooking  recipe, but there are a few tips I will offer.  One is to not try to use too many pecans.  The treat of this pie is the buttery, caramelly gel filling, soaked into the buttery crust, and it needs the perfect amount of pecans just to make a crunchy top.  Another tip is to use fresh pecans, and a good tasting pie crust, whether it is "store bought" or you make your own.  I find it works better to use a large pie-making dish, rather than one of those teensy, flimsy aluminum ones. Finally, in good Southern tradition, I love the taste of rum in pecan pie, instead of vanilla.  Trial and error has taught me that the maximum amount of rum that can go in this pie, and still have it set firm, is 4 Tablespoons!  I highly recommend using all four. (~_^)

Southern Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
  • Pie crust, partially baked, then cooled
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, if using unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 cup pecan halves
  • 4 Tablespoons rum  (at least 1 Tablespoon; or could use 1T vanilla)
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Combine and beat thoroughly all the ingredients except the pecans and rum.
  3. Stir in the pecans and rum.
  4. Fill the pie shell, and bake 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the filling comes out clean.
Serve warm or cold; I like it room temperature.  This is wonderful alone, and it also goes very well with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

1 comment:

  1. I should add my home-made pie crust recipe. This is a mix of Joy of Cooking, once again, and my grandma's technique, and she made amazing pie crusts. They all say that it's having a light touch that makes the difference... hmmmmmm, not like that's too helpful, I think.

    Here's my take on it. This is for a deep dish pie crust, more than a single pie crust.

    Take a stick of butter out of the fridge, and put it in your big pie dish with about 1 and 1/3 cups of flour, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Use a tool to chop up the butter and mix it with the flour, like a potato masher or a beater from your mixer. Once it's getting pretty mixed up, and the butter is in lots of chunks, put an icecube in a cup and add about 1/4 cup of water. Sprinkle most of the water over the mix, and mix it in, just enough water and mixing until it starts to hold together. Now take a fork and finish mixing it -- not too much! The butter chunks should be pea-sized. Now make it into a ball without handling it too much, then press it into the pan and up the sides. Voila! Buttery flakey pie crust!!

    Let me know how it turns out!

    ReplyDelete