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Thanksgiving: Pecan Pie

Source of Recipe

From "Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well" by Sam Sifton


Recipe Introduction

"It is hard to say when exactly the food cognoscenti turned against corn syrup, a silken suspension of glucose-rich corn sugar that plays a significant part in many recipes for pecan pie. It may be that corn syrup suffers in the shadow of its corporate cousin, high-fructose corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup is created by treating corn syrup with enzymes in order to produce fructose—a sweeter sugar than glucose. High-fructose corn syrup can be found in seemingly every third packaged product on your supermarket shelves, from bread to commercial bratwurst. There may or may not be a link between the rise in its use and the explosion of obesity among our nation's populace. The science is mixed. But when high-fructose corn syrup is mixed with plain corn syrup, as it often is under the guise of the 'Light Corn Syrup' sold on supermarket shelves, the result imparts a toothachingly bright flavor, and a faint plastic texture, to pies. So update your eyeglass prescription. Read the fine print before you buy. Or else go elsewhere in the pantry to find a sweetener that will not crystallize in the high heat of the oven, as plain sugar does, making it a poor candidate for pie. A light corn syrup that contains no high-fructose corn syrup makes an exceedingly good, moist pecan pie. But I have matched or exceeded its pleasures with maple syrup, with sorghum, and notably with golden syrup, a honey-hued concoction of British extraction that may be too colonial in flavor for our use on such a proudly American holiday. (Still, if you can't find it? As Julia Child taught us, you are alone in the kitchen. No one need know.) What follows is a recipe that allows the use of any of those sweeteners in conjunction with light brown sugar. Scented by vanilla, bourbon, and the strong nuttiness of toasted pecans, the result is a pie that is as much candy as pastry. It is not for the faint of heart. Its deliciousness is gigantic."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 1 recipe all-purpose pie dough, well chilled
â—¦ 2 cups pecans
â—¦ 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
â—¦ 1 cup packed light brown sugar
â—¦ ¾ cup light corn syrup, maple syrup, sorghum, or golden syrup
â—¦ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
â—¦ 2 tablespoons bourbon
â—¦ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
â—¦ 3 large eggs, beaten


Recipe

For the crust, use a rolling pin to roll the well-chilled disc of dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 12 inches in diameter. Fit this crust into a 9-inch pie plate, trimming it to leave a ½-inch overhang. (Make sure to use a light hand with the flour you sprinkle on your work surface when you are rolling out the crust. It can toughen the dough. Well-chilled pastry dough does not need much in the way of extra flour to keep it from sticking.) Place this plate, with the dough, in the freezer and chill for roughly 15 or 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the pecans out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in oven, shaking the pan often, until the nuts are fragrant, approximately 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Roughly chop about half the nuts.

Make the filling.
In a saucepan set over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, syrup, and salt. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, and continue to boil for a minute or so. Remove from the heat and stir in the nuts, bourbon, and vanilla, then set aside to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Whisk the eggs into the filling until smooth.

Remove the pie crust from the freezer. Prick the bottom of the shell all over with the tines of a fork. (Unnecessary if you have blind-baked the shell.) Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and pour the filling into it.

Bake pie on the middle rack of oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking after 20 minutes or so to see if the crust is browning too quickly. (If it is, loosely place a crown of aluminum foil around the edges.) Remove from the oven when the filling has set and gone a little puffy—it should jiggle only slightly. Allow to cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, with plain whipped cream.

Makes one 9-inch pie



All-Purpose Dough:

â—¦ 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch cubes
â—¦ 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening, cold
â—¦ 1 pinch kosher salt
â—¦ Yolk of 1 egg, beaten
â—¦ ½ teaspoon cider vinegar
â—¦ ½ cup ice water

Using your fingertips or the pulse function of a food processor, blend together the flour, fats, and salt until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. There should be pebbles of butter throughout the mixture.

Add egg yolk and vinegar to ½ cup ice water and stir to combine. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of this mixture over the dough and gently stir or pulse to combine. Gather a golf-ball-sized bit of dough and squeeze to combine. If it does not hold together, add a little more of the liquid and stir or pulse, then check again. Repeat as necessary.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather together into a round ball. You want to be careful not to overwork the flour, but not too careful; the dough should hold together. Divide the ball in half with a knife or a pastry scraper, then divide each portion in half again, to create four portions. Using the heel of your hand, flatten each portion of dough once or twice to expand the pebbles of butter, then gather the dough together again in one ball.

Flatten the ball into a 5- or 6-inch disc and dust lightly with flour. Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 60 minutes.