Audrey's Pecan Pie

I have always been a fan of pecan pie and, after having the single best piece of my life at the Afterwords Cafe in DC, I've been on a long and strenuous mission to find the perfect recipe. I had asked my friend Audrey from Nashville if she knew of any good pecan pie recipes. Her mother had gotten this recipe from a woman at their church and Audrey kindly handed the recipe over to me after her mother had sent it over to her.

I made it for the first time last Thanksgiving and it was absolutely fantastic. It came out pretty goopy, which I enjoyed because it reminds me of the texture of carmel except with nice chunks of pecan mixed in. This year I cooked it a bit longer to thicken it a tad and it came out perfect; there was only one-fourth of it left after 15 minutes, which is pretty impressive considering there was only 6 of us and we had all just eaten a large turkey dinner. I also used these lovely decorative fall cookie cutters I had purchased from Williams-Sonoma to line along the top of the pie. Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients: 

Pecan Filling

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp of butter  or margarine, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1 1/2 cup pecans

3 whole eggs

1/2 cup whipping cream

 1 Tbsp corn starch

Crust

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

4 to 8 Tbsp ice water

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. For the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse 8 times. Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time until it just begins to clump together. If you pinch it and it holds together, it's ready, if not it needs more water. Knead the dough and shape it into a disc. Cover it with plastic and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

In the meantime you can make the pecan filling. In small bowl, beat eggs, sugar, salt, butter or margarine,syrup, cornstarch and cream. Stir in the vanilla extract and the pecans. 

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out onto a flat floured surface. Place the flattened dough over a 9 inch pie dish and trim the excess dough around the edges. The excess dough can be used to decorate the edges. 

Now, pour the pecan filling into the pie shell. Bake an hour and 15 minutes or until the filling is set on top and the pastry is golden brown. Serve plain or with vanilla bean ice cream.