As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
For most of you, you are going to be like me, in baking a pecan pie and having it turn out like chit, that you like them, but they are this disaster waiting to happen.
Pecan pies are easy though, easiest pies around if you know the secret in there being two.
The first secret is that you put your raw pie crust into your pan and then place it into a 2 gallon plastic bag and you freeze it for at least 15 minutes to a half hour. Starting with a cold pie crust, keeps it from turning into that charred mess which haunts all novices.
Second point, you preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and you preheat your syrup in microwave. I do not mean HOT to cook the eggs, but you get things warm as in warm butter that is melted and room temperature eggs and you have the process progressed by 20 minutes as the oven does not have to bake the filling.
This is the recipe with just maple flavored syrup off your grocery shelf like you use for pancakes.
1 unbaked pie crust
1 cup maple or maple flavored syrup
1 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups halved pecans
Directions are easy, turn your oven on to 350 degrees. Unroll your crust, put it into the pan, put it into the plastic bag, put it into the freezer.
I use an electric mixer for the ingredients above and will tell you that pecan filling is very user friendly. If the butter has chunks on top, it will melt and combine into the filling.
Pour this into the chilled crust, and then just put the pecan halves in circles until it is covered. If any is left over, you can put the pieces on and it looks nice as it gives it height and definition.
This thing does like to ooze out filling, so if you can put a cookie tray not under the pie, but the pie on a top rack and the tray on the bottom rack.
Bake it 50 to 55 minutes, and it will still be liquid looking, but will set up. Just be careful in not scalding yourself.
When done in this insider secrets way, you will have a nice blonde pie crust, a nice pecan pie filling, which does not look like graham crackers and smells like scorched earth.
Cooking is no big secret, but sometimes there are little things you can do which makes all the difference. If you have long bake pies, you chill the crust, that way the filling cooks and the crust does not.
But of course you do not tell anyone, you just have people you hate over for holidays who can bake you a pecan pie, which will look like scorched earth while you wheel out your pretty pie to sit by it and ask who wants what kind of pie......and you never tell anyone the secret that I just told you as that is why Julia Child made you feel like crap along with Martha Stewart in it is these little things that make them look so good.
Is that not what the holidays are all about, in being Christian like this.
Now you know how easy all of this is and no one else does. Chill the crust and warm the filling.
Nuff Said
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