Pecan Pie

I have been using pecans all week! After my hummingbird cake recipe I had them out and decided to make a pecan pie... along with this yesterday my senior baking apprentice tried the maple pecan muffins from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The smell coming out of the oven was amazing... yum it was like a Canadian breakfast!

Well so I found a really nice recipe a while back and have tried other's since and this has been the best. I doubled the filling as I have a Bakers Secret High Wall Crispy Tart Pan, it didn't quite reach as high as I would have liked first time round.

Pecan Pie 

PASTRY INGREDIENTS:

• 225g of plain flour
• 2 Tbsp of icing sugar, sifted
• 125g of butter, chopped
• 2 1/2 Tbsp of cold water

 PIE INGREDIENTS

• 140g of butter
• 200g of brown sugar
• 280g of golden syrup
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• pecan nuts (I don't measure as I place the pecans in a pattern, original recipie calls for 115g of pecans chopped)

METHOD:

• Place flour, icing sugar and butter in a bowl. Rub butter between fingertips until resembles breadcrumbs. Add cold water and roll into a ball. 

• On a floured bench roll out pastry to cover your tin: base and sides. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 180°C.
• Take pastry from fridge, line pastry with baking paper and blind bake for 10 minutes. 
• Remove baking beans (manufactured, rice, beans or lentils)  and bake for a further 10 minutes. The pastry should only be a very light golden. Remove from oven and make filling.

• Melt butter, brown sugar and golden syrup until sugar has dissolved.
• In a separate bowl whisk eggs and vanilla extract.
• Remove from heat. Give syrup around 10 minutes to cool slightly and add in egg mixture slowly, yet beating fast.  
• If the eggs are not mixed in properly the heat can cook them and the egg will separate in the pie. It will look like scrambled eggs.
• Strain filling as you pour into base to avoid any lumps or bits of egg. 

• Arrange pecans in circles starting from the outer edge and making your way in. I think this can tend to look better than the chop and mix style. However if your pushed for time chop and mix away.

• Once all pecans are placed, bake in oven for 35 minutes or until set. The pie will rise and then sink down. The center should be just set.