Aayi’s Recipes Konkan/Konkani food blog, Indian culinary treasures

It was a lunch break about a year ago. It was the time when Cindy and I had our little afternoon chats. We started talking about cooking. She said she makes a pecan pie which her husband loves. That time I had no idea what a pie was. In the next few months, I tasted chocolate pecan pie. By then Cindy had taken up a new job, so I mailed her to ask if she will share her recipe with me. She is very sweet to send it to me. I tried it couple of days later and absolutely loved it. V has become a great fan of it.

Now, I feel it is very difficult to cook something which I have never seen/tasted. So when the pie was baked, I thought something was wrong because of the color. But then I googled and I think I got it right. It does not look as good as it tastes, may be next time, I will do a better job.

With Cindy’s permission, I am posting her recipe as is with exact wordings because she has explained all the steps so well. Thanks dear.

Pie crust:
1 1/8 Cups (5 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting work surface
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
About 3 Tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary

Method:
Combine flour, salt, and sugar in food processor, pulse twice. Add butter and turn on machine. Process until flour and butter are blended — will look like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.

Place mixture in a bowl and sprinkle water over it. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gather mixture into a ball. if mixture seems dry add 1/2 teaspoon more water. When you can make into a ball, do so and wrap in plastic.

Flatten ball into a disk and freeze dough for 10 minutes. Roll out to 10″ round (less than 1/4 inch deep) and sprinkle with extra flour. Put into 9″ pie pan and prick sides and bottom with a fork.
Bake in a 425F oven for 12 minutes after lining pie shell with foil and weighting with a cup or two of dried beans (to keep the pie shell’s bubbles down).

Remove pie from oven and turn down temp to 350F. Bake another 10-15 minutes more — until golden.

Pie Filling:
2 Cups shelled pecans
5 eggs
1 Cup white sugar — I used just 1/2 cup of white sugar because we usually like less sweet
1/2 Cup brown sugar
pinch salt
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Method:
Set oven to 375F.
Place pecans on baking sheet, toast lightly for 5 minutes or so. Cool pecans. Coarsely chop half or all of the pecans.
Beat eggs well, until foamy. Beat in sugars, salt and butter. Warm mixture in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until hot to touch. Don’t let mixture boil. Stir in vanilla and pecans.

Assembling the pie:
Place pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any spill over. Pour pecan mixture into prepared pie crust.

Bake 30 – 40 minutes until mixture shakes like Jello but is still quite moist. Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves : 8 big pieces