Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Southern Pecan Pie

House Church potluck this week was themed "Southern Cooking." I had no idea what to make, so I thought of the Zac Brown Band song "Chicken Fried" and decided to make Pecan Pie! It was my first attempt and my first time eating it... thought it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself! Oh, and like all my faves, this is from Test Kitchen. Next time I'm going to try the Maple Pecan Pie version to reduce the sugar and butter and eliminate the corn syrup

Ingredients:
1 pie crust (I'll try and get Grama's famous crust loaded, but no promises on when), unbaked

6 T. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
3/4 c. light corn syrup
1 T. vanilla extract
2 c. pecans, toasted and chopped coarse

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the crust with double layer of foil and fill with pie weights (or pennies). Bake until the pie dough looks dry and is light in color, 25-30 minutes. Transfer the pie plate to a wire rack and remove the weights and foil. Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees. Keep the crust warm.
Melt the butter in a heatproof bowl set in a skillet of water maintained at just below a simmer. Remove the bowl from the skillet and stir in the sugar and salt until the butter is absorbed. Whisk in the eggs, then the corn syrup and vanilla until smooth. Return the bowl to the hot water and stir until the mixture is shiny, hot to the touch, and measures 130 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Off the heat, stir in the pecans.
Pour the pecan mixture into the warm pie crust. Bake the pie until the filling looks set but yield like Jell-O when gently pressed with the back of a spoon, 50-60 minutes. Let the pie cool on a wire rack until the filling has firmed up, about 2 hours; serve warm or at room temp.

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