Pecan Pie
Makes 8 servings.
Butter Crust
- 1 tablespoon sour cream or 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons ice water
- 1.25 cups pastry flour
- 1.5 teaspoons sugar
- 0.5 teaspoons salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen, cut into 0.25 inch cubes
Mix sour cream and ice water in a bowl until combined. Process flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined, about 5 seconds. Add butter and pulse mixture until butter is the size of larges peas, about 10 pulses. Pour half of the sour cream mixture over flour mixture and pulse until incorporated, about 3 pulses. Repeat with remaining sour cream mixture. Pulse until mixture starts to bead. Turn dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Before rolling dough out, let it sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes.
Dough may be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen up to a month. If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling it out.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 F. Roll dough into 12-inch circle on lightly floured counter. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch pie plate. Trim then crimp dough around edge of pie using fingers.
Line with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for 30 minutes to get the half-baked crust we need. Transfer pie plate to wire rack and remove weights and foil.
Pecan Filling
While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. The filling must be added to the half-baked pie crust while it’s still warm.
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 0.5 cup sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup maple syrup, grade A dark amber
- 1.5 cups pecans, toasted and chopped
- 1 half-baked, still warm pie crust
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 275 F. Melt butter in double boiler. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and salt until butter is absorbed. Whisk in eggs, then maple syrup until smooth. Return to heat and stir until mixture is shiny, hot to touch, 130 F. Remove from heat and stir in pecans.
Pour pecan mixture into warm, half-baked pie crust. Bake pie for 1 hour. Let pie cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve slightly warm.
Adapted from ALL-BUTTER SINGLE-CRUST PIE DOUGH and MAPLE PECAN PIE recipes in Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook.