Oh how I do love to bake during the Holidays! I don’t like to cook (I can, I just don’t enjoy it as much). But I DO love baking pies, cookies and pastries to share with and give away to my loved ones during the Holidays. It really is a warm-fuzzy for me. I turn my Pandora radio onto Holiday music, plug my headphones in and bake the night away.
That’s what I did for my Thanksgiving Pecan Pie this year. It turned out DELICIOUS and it was fun to make. I decided to document it with my camera this year.
- Preheat your oven to 375º
- Prepare a pastry for a 9 inch one crust pie
- 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbs shortening
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
I mixed the dry ingredients (flour and salt) together. Then I added the shortening and used a pastry blender (which I highly recommend because it’s so much easier) to blend the shortening in with the flour and salt. The trick with this pie crust is to blend and blend until there is no longer a “powdery” consistency in the flour. You want it all to be absorbed by the shortening, until it looks like large crumbs. Then I added 3 Tbs of water sprinkling it on one at a time and tossing with a fork. Then I gathered all the dough together into a ball and squished it out flat. I put it on my floured counter top and rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick.
It can be tricky getting your pastry into your pie plate without it falling apart. I usually place my rolling pin in the center of the pastry and roll one half of it over the rolling pin then I place my pie plate right beside it and use the rolling pin to drag it up over the plate. Once I got it in the pie plate I pushed it down around the bottom before trimming off the excess leaving about an inch hanging over. Then I folded the extra underneath before putting creases all the way around.
Next it was time to get out the BEAST (aka my kick-ass Kitchenaid) to mix the ingredients for the pie filling. You can always use a hand-mixer or beater if you don’t have a beast like mine 
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup stick butter or margarine
- 1 cup Karo syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
I then mixed all the above ingredients until it was smooth. After that I added the pecans. The recipe calls for 1 cup of pecans but I usually just put the whole bag in and I haven’t had a single complaint yet! I would recommend using a spoon or spatula to mix in the nuts as my mixer tends to pulverize them :p
I took the empty pie shell and put it on the oven rack and poured the filling in. After that was done I made a “tent” out of aluminum foil to place over the top. It’s my experience when baking pies with such a high sugar content they tend to burn or scorch on top really easily. I baked my pie for the first 35 minutes with the foil on and for the final 10-12 I removed the foil so the top would brown a little bit. But keep your eye on it once you take the foil off because it will turn brown really fast. Bake your pie for 40-50 minutes until the center is set. The pie is done when you give it a half-turn and the center barely jiggles. It can jiggle a little bit because the pie will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven.
Taaaadaaaa! A delicious Pecan Pie for the whole family to enjoy! It was WONDERFUL!
Happy Holidays everyone! Share your love and caring by baking goodies for your loved ones this season The “Mmmmmmm!” sound is a gift in and of itself
XOXOX
Kim
