Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie (17.5)

 

When you're living in the south, and married to a thoroughly southern man, pecan pie is a holiday staple. In fact, it's my husband's favorite. But I think I've only baked it once or twice in my life. So although this recipe doesn't have a ton of reviews (134), I knew I had to add it to my baking quest, just for him.  And I should note, it does have a 4.5 star rating. That's pretty impressive. 

The recipe calls for you to have a raw crust ready to go. I used my new favorite crust--America's Test Kitchen's "Foolproof All-Butter Dough for Single-Crust Pie." It is very easy to make, but does take about 3 hours from start to 'ready to fill' so be aware of that lead time. 

Also, by way of preparation before the recipe begins, I always toast my pecans and allow them to cool before adding them into the pie. This takes about 8 minutes at 350. Or you can do it in a pan on the stove. 

Now, we begin with a contradiction. The ingredients list calls for 8 Tbs. of butter, cold. But the first thing it asks you to do (other than preheat the oven and prepare your crust) is to melt the butter. Then set it aside to cool. I went with what the directions said, and ignored the ingredients list.

Then, in a medium sized bowl, I whisked together the flour, a copious amount of brown sugar, and salt.  Then I added in the milk and beaten eggs. I whisked this until it became a sugary paste. Next, I was supposed to add in vanilla-butternut flavor. It's optional, and I didn't have any, so I omitted this. 

The last few ingredients all went in now--vanilla, the melted butter, and the diced pecans. This syrupy concoction was them poured into the crust, and the whole pecans were tossed on top. Into the oven it went for 50 minutes. 

Now for a disclaimer. I am not a lover of pecan pie. As I mentioned before, I rarely bake it. So when it came to baking, I followed the recipe as closely as I could. I went to the maximum bake time recommended (check). It was was puffed up, and set (check). But it also says the middle should "barely" wobble. Mine was decidedly more than "barely" wobbly. But since the whole thing was looking quite brown, and I met two of the three criteria, I pulled the pie and hoped that the next statement ("the pie will finish setting up as it sits") proved true. 

It didn't. 

As you can see, I was very close to victory. The bottom is not runny, per se, but definitely not cooked through. Temperature and timing can be tricky, and vary from oven to oven. Now I know, I need to cover my pie with foil, and give it an extra 5-8 minutes at the end. 

Now keep in mind, I don't love pecan pie as I critique this recipe... It was too sweet. Even though they swapped out brown sugar for the corn syrup, which added a nice caramel flavor, and tamped down the sweetness, sugar is pretty much the main ingredient of this pie. 

Next, I don't feel like there are nearly enough pecans in there. It was mostly the goop, with a few nuts. I feel like we could hit two birds with one stone here (less sweet and more nutty) if we improved the ratio of nuts to goop. 

I realize these critiques are completely my personal taste preferences, and not a reflection of a problem with the recipe at all. In fact, my husband absolutely LOVED this pie. He sprinkled some large flake salt on the top  (think salted caramels) and said it was amazing. So although I won't be baking this often, any time I need a pecan pie, this will be the recipe I use. (Just ignore Andrew's rating. He hates pecans).

Scores (out of 5): Dustin: 4.5 . Breanna: 3.5. Michael: 5. James: 2.5. Andrew: 2. Total 17.5 /25

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/old-fashioned-pecan-pie-recipe