Bonjour,
Pecan pie is not something that can easily be found in France. In fact, I never had one before I moved to Canada.
I have to say that this was a huge revelation, pecan pie is now one of my favorite pies and every time the holiday season approaches, I can’t wait to eat it again!
For my pecan pie, I use a butter pie crust, that is perfect for pies with fillings. In fact, it’s perfect for quiche as well if you want to use it for that purpose. You can definitely use a store bought pie crust if you are running out of time or if you want to make this recipe easier.
For the filling, I decided to use maple syrup, first reason is that I am Canadian now (lol) but also because I prefer its taste to golden syrup taste but you are welcome to use golden syrup if that is your preference!
My favorite thing to eat with pecan pie is definitely a good vanilla ice ceam. I can never resist this combination.
Tips to succeed
Butter pie crust:
Make sure to use soft, room temperature butter and egg. This will facilitate the blending of all ingredients
Make sure to use pastry flour. Pastry flour has less gluten than all-purpose or bread flour. The lesser gluten your flour has, the less likely it is to retract in the oven.
You can use the flat beater of a Stand mixer to make your pie dough instead of doing it by hand, it will make your life much easier.
Don’t over-mix your pie dough. Overmixing activates the gluten in the dough, making it more likely to retract in the oven.
Let the dough in the fridge for at least one hour before using it. Your dough will be easier to spread when it is cold. Also when dough is not handled for a period of time, gluten “relaxes” and is not as activated (elastic) meaning the dough is less likely to retract in the oven.
If you want your dough to be more crunchy, you can blind-bake it beforehand for 15 minutes. If doing so, make sure to poke holes on your dough with a fork and use pie weights.
Pecan filling:
Use room-temperature eggs to get a better bake in the oven.
Don’t whisk your filling too much after you add flour, otherwise, the filling will expand too much in the pie.
I am using maple syrup but you can use golden syrup or any syrup you like.
Pecan pie
Equipment
- 1 20 cm (8 ") tart ring
- Mixing bowls
Ingredients
Butter tart ring
- 190 g Unsalted butter (room temperature
- 280 g Pastry flour
- 20 g milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 15 g sugar
- 8 g salt ( 2 tsp)
Pecan filling
- 90 g cane sugar
- 80 g maple syrup
- 130 g chopped pecans
- 3 eggs
- 30 g flour
- 200 g whole pecans (approx)
Instructions
Butter pie dough
- Make sure that your butter is at room temperature and soft. In a bowl, mix with your finger tips butter, sugar, flour, salt and sugar until you get a crumble-like texture.
- Add milk and egg yolk and mix with your hand until you get something homogenous. Do not overmix though as an overmixed dough will tend to retract when baked.
- Spread the dough into a thick rectangle. Cover well with saran wrap and Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Pecan filling
- In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and maple syrup. Add sifted flour and whisk. Finally add finely chopped pecans.
Assembly and baking
- Spread your dough until you get a thickness of approximately 3 mm. Line your dough into a tart ring or tart pan. Fill with the pecan filling up to 3/4 of the pie crust to leave room for the whole pecan. Add pecan one by one on a circle.
- Bake in the oven at 180C (360F) for 40 minutes. or until your pie is golden brown.
