An Easy Pecan Pie Recipe



You are here:  > > An Easy Pecan Pie Recipe

I thought, like many others, that pecan pie was an ages old recipe from the deep South. I was wrong. As it turns out, recipes for pecan pie didn't show up anywhere until the twentieth century.  It appeared in Joy around the 40's, and it was certainly made popular by Karo, as their bottles of syrup included a recipe for pecan pie.

Pecan Pie.A Versatile And Easy Pecan Pie Recipe
Pastry crust for pecan pie.

This pie crust is simply a modified version of 3-2-1 pastry crust.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse it a few times to mix everything together, add the butter and the tallow to the flour mixture and pulse until the fat is in pea sized chunks. Add the water, and pulse until it comes together. Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface. Gently work together into a round disc.

Ingredients for pecan pie filling.

Ingredients for the pecan pie recipe.

Pecan pie filling in mixer bowl.

The pecan pie filling.

Unbaked pie crust lining a pie plate.

Pastry crust ready to blind bake.

Pecan pie crust after blind baking.

The crust after baking.

Pecan pie ready for the oven.

Pecan pie ready for the oven.

Pecan pie immediately out of the oven.An easy pecan pie recipe or Southern pecan pie recipe that is delicious and very versatile.

This Is An Easy Pecan Pie Recipe That Is Very Versatile

  • Yield: one 9-inch pie
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

For The Crust

  • 150 grams / 5-1/4 ounces all-purpose flour
  • 5 grams / 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 grams / 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 7 grams / 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 50 grams / 1-3/4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
  • 50 grams / 1-3/4 ounces beef tallow, divided into 6 pieces
  • 50 grams /  1-3/4 ounces / 1/4 cup ice water

For The Filling

  • 3 eggs
  • 190 grams / 6-3/4 ounces / 1 cup sugar
  • 3 grams / 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 75 grams / 2-1/2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
  • 315 grams / 11 ounces / 1 cup organic corn syrup
  • 7 grams / 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 110 grams / 4 ounces pecan halves, toasted

Method

For The Crust

  1. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse it a few times to mix everything together and equally distribute all of the ingredients.
  2. Add the butter and the tallow to the flour mixture and pulse on and off several times until the fat is in pea sized chunks.
  3. Add the water, while pulsing and hold the machine on just until the dough comes together.
  4. Turn out the dough onto  a floured work surface and gently work together into a round disc. Wrap and refrigerate, for 30 minutes.

For The Pie Filling

  1. Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, butter, corn syrup, and vanilla together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium low until everything comes together and increase speed to medium. Mix until the sugar is completely dissolved, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
  2. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the pecans. Set aside.

To Make The Pie

  1. Roll out the pastry and lay it into a 9-inch pie pan. Press it into place and work it until the pan is covered. 
  2. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork and line it with aluminum foil. Add pie weights to the foil and bake the pie in a 375 oven, for 10-minutes. Remove the shell and take the foil and weights off.
  3. Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake at 325 until a knife tip or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about an hour.
  4. When the pie is done  remove it to a wire rack and allow the pie to cool completely.

Notes

  1. Baking the empty pie shell is called blind baking. The reason for adding weights is that the crust will shrink while baking if you don't. The reason for lining it with foil is that the weights will bake into the crust if you don't line it.
  2. You can use pie weights if you like but there is really no need. I use black beans. Just buy a couple 1-pound bags of black beans and put them into a container. When you need pie weights use the black beans. After baking, allow to cool and put them back in the container.
  3. Regarding conversions in recipes, I've said it before and I'll say it again, weighing all of the ingredients in grams is the most accurate way to cook, and returns the most consistent results.

Substitutions / Additions

This is an easy pecan pie recipe that is incredibly versatile. With the substitutions below you have a recipe for seven different pies. Really though you can extend that out by using different combinations of ingredients.

  1. If you omit the pecans and the vanilla and add 3 tablespoons / 45 milliliters of bourbon whiskey you will have a bourbon pie.
  2. If you substitute walnuts for the pecans you will have a walnut pie.
  3. If you omit the vanilla and add 3-tablespoons / 45 milliliters bourbon you will have a bourbon pecan pie.
  4. If you omit the vanilla and add 3-tablespoons / 45 milliliters bourbon and 16-ounces / 454 grams of chocolate chips you will have a bourbon chocolate pecan pie. (To add chocolate chips just stir them in at the same time you stir in the pecans.)
  5. If you omit the corn syrup and replace it with maple syrup you will have a maple pecan pie.

Tags: easy pecan pie recipe, southern pecan pie recipe, pecan pie recipes