Some friends gave us pecan nuts and Mum decided she wanted to make pecan pie. Dad found her a recipe on the internet. She looked at it and groaned. Mum’s not good with fiddly things—remember the cheesecake a few weeks ago?
Luckily for Mum, Dad cracked those nuts because otherwise she would have broken her nails.
The ingredients needed for the pastry were the following:
- 1 cup of cake flour
- a pinch of salt
- cup of cold butter (cut into small blocks)
- half a tablespoon of caster sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons of iced water
You had to sieve the flour and salt first. Then, using your fingertips, rub the cold butter into the flour until it’s all crumbly. Then add the caster sugar to the flour and mix in the egg yolk, water and lemon juice. Knead the dough for around ten minutes, then wrap it in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.
After an hour, you roll out that dough that’s been chilling in the fridge (literally – hahaha) and line a pie tin (or a pie dish). Prick the base of the pasty with a fork and blind bake it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 180oC
That’s just the pastry base people.
For the filling:
- 3 large eggs,
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 80ml golden syrup
- 3/4 of a cup of pecan nuts.
While the base is cooking, whip up the filling quick. Beat the eggs (you can chuck in the left over egg white from the pastry too), add the melted butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla essence. When the mixture becomes sort of foamy, it’s ready.
When the base is cooked, fill it with the nuts and pour the sweet eggy mixture over the top. Bake it for about 40 minutes.
Mum made the pie exactly according to the recipe the first time. It was absolutely divine.
The second time (a week later) she did not bother with any of the fancy stuff. She melted the pastry butter in the micro, mixed all the ingredients up, chucked the dough directly into the pie dish and baked it immediately.
Sometimes you have to make something properly the first time, to realise that you can take short cuts.
It tasted equally delicious!
Sibo
PS – If you’d like to know how to crack a pecan nut – see here.