Just about a perfect pie. Also, an excellent breakfast pie, although I'll say that about most any kind of pie.
Today I had an eye doctor's appointment and while I was waiting for the eye-dilation eyedrops to wear off so I could see well enough to work, I made this pie for Thanksgiving. It was Sugar Freedom Day or something, because the sugar was constantly trying to jump out of the mixing bowl. And succeeding. My kitchen floor is all crunchy now. I think it was because the butter was a little too cold and the butter-sugar whip was all fluffy.
You can find this recipe all over the Internet. Over the years, I've made a few adjustments to the baking time and temperature and this time I tried pre-baking the crust a little, because if you don't, the bottom crust tends to taste a little raw.
Master Chief Steward Harry Hightower (retired) says:
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust with edges of crust crimped high
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I think toasting is optional, because I'm kind of lazy and it tastes just fine if they're not toasted)
I says: Put the piecrust into a deep-dish pie pan and prick with a fork. Preheat the oven to 400 °F and prebake the crust for nine minutes or so. Don't bake the crust all the way, get it to the point where it's just barely starting to brown.
Hightower says: In a large mixing bowl, gradually beat the sugar into the softened butter with an electric mixer, beating until mixture is well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Combine the all-purpose flour and the salt. Gradually beat these dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Beat in the buttermilk until mixture is well blended. Pour the egg and buttermilk filling into the piecrust. Sprinkle the toasted pecans over the top of the filling in the piecrust. Bake the pie at 325 °F for 1 hour (says I) or until the buttermilk filling is set. Cool. Store the pie in the refrigerator. (More recently, I added another ten minutes to the baking time and found that this yields a perfectly set pie.)
To toast the chopped pecans (if you're not lazy, says I, but why not be lazy when you can?), spread them evenly in a shallow baking pan. Bake the pecans at 350 °F for 5 to 10 minutes or until they're browned, stirring the nuts once or twice during baking.
438 words | November 23, 2005 08:06 PM | KitchenSounds good.
I just made the traditional Karo Syrup recipe Pecan Pies for tomorrow, but with the latest family alteration: replace some of the sugar with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. No, it's not subtle.... but it's good!
In other food news, my grandmother's mushroom barley soup is going to go vegetarian tomorrow, with a few other alterations to bolster the flavor (bay leaves, garlic, shoyu...)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at November 24, 2005 04:36 AMHappy Thanksgiving to you too! Are you going to put that soup recipe online? Or the pies? (Your family alterations generally involve chocolate chips, don't they? Except not in the soup, I guess.)
One really great way to make soups savory is to use katsuo-bushi in the broth. I guess the fish flakes make it not strictly vegetarian, but it's nothing the fishy is going to miss. Much. I use dashi for making grits too, and it makes them so flavorful that they're almost not grits.
Posted by: Nee-chama at November 24, 2005 10:54 AMWell, the pie recipe really is as easy as it sounds: take the pecan pie recipe from the Karo Corn Syrup bottle and replace half the sugar with the same amount of melted chocolate chips.
The mushroom barley soup came out incredibly well, but I'm not sure I'm ready to share yet. I will say, though, that it properly should be called a barley, lima bean, mushroom soup, with parsnips... and vegetarian didn't hurt the flavor in the slightest, as near as I can tell.
I never got the hang of broths, really: katsuo-bushi and dashi (and bullion) are just things I do when the recipe says so. But why would you want your grits to be anything else? I love grits. (of course, I also like Cream of Wheat with chocolate chips!)
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at November 27, 2005 04:51 AMThe dashi gives the grits a really savory flavor so you don't have to add nearly as much butter and salt to make them palatable. You can still add the butter and salt, of course, even if you use dashi. I usually serve grits alongside dishes with very strong flavors (and plenty of Tabasco), like greens and a hoppin' john kind of blackeye pea dish, and the dashi helps the grits stand up on their own without smacking you in the mouth with butter and salt.
Posted by: Nee-chama at November 27, 2005 11:05 AM