The theme of this blog is apparently flaky things that you should make on the weekend to indulge in. I pose no threat to your actual well-being, and furthermore have no bearing on destroying your New Year's Resolutions.
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Yes, you can buy a pecan pie from the freezer section, and most of the time, you don't even have to bake it. Just thaw it on your counter; but what about that sounds satisfying or appetizing? With any luck, and a few hours time, you'll have the most gooey and nutty pie you've ever made. I can practically guarantee you've never had a pie crust as flaky as the one I'm about to detail. You can also let your imagination go wild with adornments on your pie crust. Braids, leaves, you name it!
Shopping List (Crust):
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Hardware:
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Prep (for the crust):
Make the pie dough. Cut lard into sifted flour and salt until you get small chunks of flour and lard about the size of peas. This will look pretty scrappy but should feel like sand. Start drizzling in a few grams of ice cold water and mix until your dough starts to come together. Be wary of over-hydrating your dough. You can go from perfect flakes to dense mush very quick if you were to pour all the water in. Be careful not to overwork the dough, as you don't want a ton of gluten forming. Use your hands, though; that's the only way to tell if it's hydrated enough.
Once the dough forms a ball, separate it into two discs about an inch thick and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for the lard to re-solidify.
Preheat oven to 400 deg F.
Remove one of your discs of dough from the chill box and lightly flour both sides of it. Begin rolling it out as thin as possible. There's a million tutorials on how to roll something out to circular shape, but the best trick is to make one pass, then rotate the dough. Repeat until your dough is about 3 inches larger in radius than your pie tin. Using your rolling pin, loosely roll the pie crust over the pin and use it to drop it into the tin. Carefully push down in the corners of your pan to ensure good contact with the pan. I didn't grease my pie tin because it's non-stick, so use caution if you are using straight aluminum. Maybe Google some others' experience if you're having doubts about stickage.
I usually trim the crust down to the edge of the tin at this point, but don't overdo it. The crust WILL shrink as it cooks. Depending on adornment that you plan on making with that other ball of dough, your mileage will vary on where you want to cut. Just don't go overboard. Patch up any holes or thin spots you see in the dough, and line with parchment paper on top and get ready to blind bake your crust.
Fill that paper with black beans or your pie weights and bake for 15 minutes at 400 deg F. Remove the pie crust from the oven, reduce the temperature to 350 deg F, take out the parchment and pie weights, and return the crust to the oven to bake another 12 minutes or until some color starts to form and the pie crust looks set. This is to prevent having a raw, soggy bottom on your crust. Remember that your filling is mostly molten sugar. Sooo yeah.
While the crust is blind baking, you can make the filling.
Prep (for the filling):
Point me in the direction of someone that knows what to call the filling of a pecan pie. Is it a caramel? Is it a custard? Is it liquefied diabetes? No seriously, I need to know, I have no clue.
Combine the sugars, flour, milk, butter, vanilla, salt, and alcohol into the sauce pot and heat over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil. You're not looking for burned caramel, so whisk it the whole time. Once it boils, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit.
Take a spoonful of the sugar mixture and start tempering your eggs to slowly raise their temperature (as you don't want scrambled eggs from the hot sugar syrup). Whisk a few tablespoons of sugar into the eggs until soupy, and then slowly drizzle in the rest, whisking the entire time. Ta-da, your filling is complete. Set it aside.
Hopefully by now your crust is finished blind baking, so you can take it out of the oven and move on to adorning with cute AF decorations and to toasting the pecans (if they're raw). This takes about 7-8 minutes in that 350 deg F oven, so you can do that while also working on the decorations.
Prep (decorations):
Using that other disc of dough, roll it out to the same thickness as your pie crust. Now, here's where your creativity comes into focus. You can cut your rolled dough into thin strips and braid it, or you can hand-cut some leaf-like items to place on top, or you can cut out the mathematical symbol for pi. Either one. I've attached an image below of what a braid should look like (even though it's a little sloppy) if you're a guy that's never had to braid anything before in your life. No I didn't have to Google what a braid looks like...
With any of these, try to work quickly and keep the dough cold, else it'll start to melt on you. By now, those pecans are done toasting. So it's time to finally start baking the finished product.
The Bakening:
Hopefully your sugar syrup mixture hasn't completely solidified. If it has, reheat it over a double boiler gently to thin it out.
I like to dump the pecans into the baked pie crust and then start pouring the sugar syrup over it, but there's not anything wrong with combining the pecans and syrup and THEN pouring in your crust. It's your life.
Make sure the pecans are well coated and that your pie crust isn't overflowing with filling. The last thing you want is the sugar to get in between the pan and the crust. Trust me.
Place your decorations on top of the edges of crust, and know that they'll probably sink into the filling a little bit. That's life, though. Don't worry about it.
Bake at 350 deg F for about 40-45 minutes or until you have no wobble left in the center of the pie and your decorations have browned up a bit.
Pull it out of the oven, and wait. A good sign is to hear crackling and popping from the sugar as you remove it from the oven and for about 5 minutes afterward. Let this cool completely in the pie tin. Not even joking. Don't touch it. Not. Even. Once.
Serve at room temperature after cooling. A good test is to carefully flip the pie upside down to see if there is any runny-ness or leaks. But only do this if you're feeling bold.
Enjoy!
Make the pie dough. Cut lard into sifted flour and salt until you get small chunks of flour and lard about the size of peas. This will look pretty scrappy but should feel like sand. Start drizzling in a few grams of ice cold water and mix until your dough starts to come together. Be wary of over-hydrating your dough. You can go from perfect flakes to dense mush very quick if you were to pour all the water in. Be careful not to overwork the dough, as you don't want a ton of gluten forming. Use your hands, though; that's the only way to tell if it's hydrated enough.
Once the dough forms a ball, separate it into two discs about an inch thick and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for the lard to re-solidify.
Preheat oven to 400 deg F.
Remove one of your discs of dough from the chill box and lightly flour both sides of it. Begin rolling it out as thin as possible. There's a million tutorials on how to roll something out to circular shape, but the best trick is to make one pass, then rotate the dough. Repeat until your dough is about 3 inches larger in radius than your pie tin. Using your rolling pin, loosely roll the pie crust over the pin and use it to drop it into the tin. Carefully push down in the corners of your pan to ensure good contact with the pan. I didn't grease my pie tin because it's non-stick, so use caution if you are using straight aluminum. Maybe Google some others' experience if you're having doubts about stickage.
I usually trim the crust down to the edge of the tin at this point, but don't overdo it. The crust WILL shrink as it cooks. Depending on adornment that you plan on making with that other ball of dough, your mileage will vary on where you want to cut. Just don't go overboard. Patch up any holes or thin spots you see in the dough, and line with parchment paper on top and get ready to blind bake your crust.
Fill that paper with black beans or your pie weights and bake for 15 minutes at 400 deg F. Remove the pie crust from the oven, reduce the temperature to 350 deg F, take out the parchment and pie weights, and return the crust to the oven to bake another 12 minutes or until some color starts to form and the pie crust looks set. This is to prevent having a raw, soggy bottom on your crust. Remember that your filling is mostly molten sugar. Sooo yeah.
While the crust is blind baking, you can make the filling.
Prep (for the filling):
Point me in the direction of someone that knows what to call the filling of a pecan pie. Is it a caramel? Is it a custard? Is it liquefied diabetes? No seriously, I need to know, I have no clue.
Combine the sugars, flour, milk, butter, vanilla, salt, and alcohol into the sauce pot and heat over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil. You're not looking for burned caramel, so whisk it the whole time. Once it boils, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit.
Take a spoonful of the sugar mixture and start tempering your eggs to slowly raise their temperature (as you don't want scrambled eggs from the hot sugar syrup). Whisk a few tablespoons of sugar into the eggs until soupy, and then slowly drizzle in the rest, whisking the entire time. Ta-da, your filling is complete. Set it aside.
Hopefully by now your crust is finished blind baking, so you can take it out of the oven and move on to adorning with cute AF decorations and to toasting the pecans (if they're raw). This takes about 7-8 minutes in that 350 deg F oven, so you can do that while also working on the decorations.
Prep (decorations):
Using that other disc of dough, roll it out to the same thickness as your pie crust. Now, here's where your creativity comes into focus. You can cut your rolled dough into thin strips and braid it, or you can hand-cut some leaf-like items to place on top, or you can cut out the mathematical symbol for pi. Either one. I've attached an image below of what a braid should look like (even though it's a little sloppy) if you're a guy that's never had to braid anything before in your life. No I didn't have to Google what a braid looks like...
With any of these, try to work quickly and keep the dough cold, else it'll start to melt on you. By now, those pecans are done toasting. So it's time to finally start baking the finished product.
The Bakening:
Hopefully your sugar syrup mixture hasn't completely solidified. If it has, reheat it over a double boiler gently to thin it out.
I like to dump the pecans into the baked pie crust and then start pouring the sugar syrup over it, but there's not anything wrong with combining the pecans and syrup and THEN pouring in your crust. It's your life.
Make sure the pecans are well coated and that your pie crust isn't overflowing with filling. The last thing you want is the sugar to get in between the pan and the crust. Trust me.
Place your decorations on top of the edges of crust, and know that they'll probably sink into the filling a little bit. That's life, though. Don't worry about it.
Bake at 350 deg F for about 40-45 minutes or until you have no wobble left in the center of the pie and your decorations have browned up a bit.
Pull it out of the oven, and wait. A good sign is to hear crackling and popping from the sugar as you remove it from the oven and for about 5 minutes afterward. Let this cool completely in the pie tin. Not even joking. Don't touch it. Not. Even. Once.
Serve at room temperature after cooling. A good test is to carefully flip the pie upside down to see if there is any runny-ness or leaks. But only do this if you're feeling bold.
Enjoy!
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