It is Pecan season again

Lovely Wife and I have two very mature pecan trees in our back yard. We picked up the first pecans of the season yesterday evening. We probably picked up two or three quarts. There are going to be a bunch of them this year. We still have a few quarts frozen from last year too.

Any of the gurus have any good pecan-oriented recipes? Anything from appetizers, entrees, side dishes, or desserts would be appreciated.

Oh PECANS!!!!

Pralines of course and some Pecan pie My wife knows some good recipes, I'll get her to post them in the next few days.

Love pecan pie, mi favorito. Many versions, few outstanding. Please post!

This French tart is meant to be made with walnuts, but I have also made it with pecans. It is simply to die for. You can use a pre-made pie crust, but that would not be very authentic, would it?

Tart pastry:

-1 1/2 cups flour
-pinch of salt
-2 tablespoons sugar
-10 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks
-1 egg


1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Pulse twice and add the butter. Pulse for about ten seconds. Add the egg and pulse a few more times.

2. Put the mixture in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons ice water. Form into a ball and then wrap in plastic wrap. Put it in your freezer and freeze for ten minutes.

3. Roll the dough out on a floured surface. You want it about 2 inches larger in circumference than your tart dish. Drape it over your tart dish and cut off the extra dough (if you make this often enough, those little cut offs will eventually be enough for another tart). Let this sit in your refrigerator for 30 minutes.



Nut tart:

NOTE: I suggest doubling every ingredient with an asterisks next to it. The original recipe does not call for this, but I have found the filling is not enough.

-1 pastry tart (the preceding recipe)
-butter for the dish
-1 1/4 cups sugar
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter *
-1/2 cup heavy cream *
-1/4 cup honey *
-2 cups roughly chopped walnuts (there should be numerous big chunks) *


1. Preheat your oven to 400 F. Tear off a piece of aluminum foil, twice as large as the crust, and smear the butter on it. Lay the aluminum foil, buttered side down, on the crust and weight it with baking weights (you can use beans or rice if you do not have any).

2. Bake the crust in the oven like this for 12 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil, turn the oven down to 350 F, and continue to bake until the crust is golden brown.
3. (If you double the ingredients in asterisks, I would suggest making the following filling twice, not doubled). Mix the sugar with 1 tablespoon water in a pan. Turn the heat to medium and stir occasionally until the sugar melts and turns brown. Turn the heat to low and add the butter and cream. Stir until the butter melts. If you have any sugar chunks in your caramel, run this through a sieve. Stir in the honey and walnuts. Spread the mixture over the tart crust.

4. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving (this makes the tart much easier to cut and taste much better).

Pecan Pie

#1
Obviously, the first thing. You could use a regular pastry shell, or a shortbread crust or one of the kind you unroll but that is not as much fun. This is a pat-in-pan crust, similar to a shortbread.

1 1/2 C flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 t cinnamon
1 stick (8T) softened butter
3 T cream

Preheat oven to 400F
Put flour, salt and cinnamon in a food processor and give it a quick whir to combine. Cut the butter into 8 pieces and add to the flour mixture. Pulse in the food processor until it looks like course sand. (I promise it tastes better) Add the 3 T cream and pulse until it holds a shape when you pinch it, play-doh consistency.

OPTIONAL: You can replace 1/4 C of the flour with pecan or another nut flour. You could also replace 1/2 C flour with bread or Whole Wheat flour for different tastes/textures.

Dump the contents into a greased pie plate. Mix briefly with your hands to make sure it is all combined. Spread it out and press/form it with your hands. Make a nice thick rim to be crimped. Use a flat bottomed glass to press the crust on the bottom. Crimp the rim with a fork or one of those fancy crimping tools. ***** the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork so it doesn't get bubbles underneath the crust.pop that bad boy into a 400F oven for 12-15 min, until nice and golden brown. Check it every now and again to make sure no bubbles are forming.

#2
You need 2 Cups of pecan pieces or just a bit more of pecan halves. I like mine to still look like pecans so I start with halves and chop until they are all in largeish pieces. Spread on a baking sheet and put in the oven with the crust to toast.
They can burn quickly so keep an eye on them, don't ask.

#3
5T butter
1 C light corn syrup
1 C Brown Sugar (or better yet, unrefined cane sugar)
1/2 t salt
3 lg eggs
1T dark rum or 1t vanilla extract

Melt the butter in the mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar off to one side. (dip a finger in the butter and grease your 1 Cup measuring cup before you measure the corn syrup) add everything else but 1 egg. This solitarty remaining egg needs to be divided. put the yolk in a small bowl and add the white to the rest of the filling.

#4
Your 12-15 minutes has passed, crust is lightly browned and pecans are fragrant and toasty. Remove both and turn the oven to 375F.
We are going to do an egg glaze to keep the crust from getting soggy.
Take that reserved yolk, add a pinch of salt and a dab(very small amount, ~1t) of water. Brush the whole of the crust with the egg glaze, making sure to get the rim. Return the crust to the oven to set the egg glaze, 1-2min

#5
Prep work is done, time for the pie making.
Whisk up all the stuff in the bowl. now you have gooey goodness.
Add the pecans(don't burn yourself)and stir some more. Carefully pour into the slightly cooled crust, scraping the bowl well. Return to the oven and bake 35-45min until the middle just barely jiggles when you nudge the pie plate.
Remove and let cool on a rack for AT LEAST 1 1/2 hrs. If you don't the filling will run al over the place and just generally make a mess of the world.

If you made the rim of you crust too thin (I did) and it is already browned (like mine) you should put the pie crust shield on. Lacking a pie crust shield? Cover the crust with strips of aluminum foil.

A few notes:
Optional substitutions include exchanging the pecans for 1 1/2 c chopped walnuts and 1/2 c mini chocolate morsels or shaved chocolate. The walnuts float, the chocolate sinks and a sort of heaven results.

If you leave the baked pie at room temp after you cut it the filling will start ot weep. You could try adding 1 Tablespoon of flour, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch or an extra egg to remedy the problem. I keep it in the fridge and warm individual slices in the microwave.

Pecan pie is best warmed and served with Vanilla ice cream (with teh bean flecks) or fresh whipped cream. Custard is also delish. Cool Whip is an acceptable substitute.

Fair warning, if you buy one of those crusts in the foil pan, the 6oz crust is too small so you will have to modify the recipe or bake the extra filling in a greased ramekin.

Thanks to mretzloff & Kouros. I'm not a baker but will get my prettier half to make them

there are dozens of recipes to choose from. Mine comes from Fanny Farmer or Southern Living. The real key to pecan pie is not to overcook it. When your are not sure if it is done, it is done. For an extra indulgence(like pecan pie is not already rich enough) add one or two tablespoons of Ghiradelli Premium hot cocoa mix before pouring it into the pie shell. Chocolate Pecan Pie. Cry for the angels 'cause they aint got it. I also make a pretty fair sweet potato pie(my favorite), but the chocolate pecan always vanishes first. When I make chocolate pecan pie, I use regular cane sugar and light corn syrup.

p.s. I serve unsweetened whip cream with pecan pie, flavored with a little bourbon or rye.

I will commit a major faux pas and post up a recipe I've never tried, but Sandra Lee just made this on the Food Network an hour ago and it looked great:

Pecan Candied Bacon Bites

Ingredients
1/2 pound thick cut bacon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
4 slices rye bread
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons chopped chives, for garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and top it with a baking rack. Arrange the bacon in 1layer on top of the rack.

Mix together the pecans, and brown sugar with a good grinding of pepper in a small bowl. Evenly sprinkle the mixture over the bacon. Put the bacon into the oven and bake until the sugar is melted and the bacon is crisp, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly until crisp.

While the bacon is cooking, toast the rye bread and cut each slice into quarters. In a small bowl mix together the cream cheese and Worcestershire sauce. To serve, spread the toast with the cream cheese mixture and top with 1 or 2 pieces of bacon cut to fit the bread. Garnish with chopped chives and serve.


I don't know about the rye bread, I'm thinking a chunk of sourdough or something instead, but otherwise, how can you go wrong with pecans, bacon, and brown sugar? May have to try this.

And by the way the pecan pie recipes sound delicious!

Confilo said:

Thanks to mretzloff & Kouros. I'm not a baker but will get my prettier half to make them

Click to expand...

You are welcome. If you ever have time to learn, baking is pretty relaxing, kind of like wet shaving.

Pralines! Pecan pie!

Whenever I have something or groups of things that I can't seem to find a recipe for I use http://www.yummly.com/

You can add your cupboard and it will come up with some great ideas.

Pie, anything dessert.
I'm a bit jealous as my apple tree gave us nothing this year (bad hailstorm killed the buds)

auk1124 said:

Lovely Wife and I have two very mature pecan trees in our back yard. We picked up the first pecans of the season yesterday evening. We probably picked up two or three quarts. There are going to be a bunch of them this year. We still have a few quarts frozen from last year too.

Any of the gurus have any good pecan-oriented recipes? Anything from appetizers, entrees, side dishes, or desserts would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

A very good friend of mine lives in a former 3000 acre pecan farm ( there is another 3000 acres that is still a working farm). They have 12 pecan trees left on their lot. That leaves a ton of pecans in their friends freezers and a plethora of recipes.

My favorites are pecan molasses chicken, pecan preserves, pecan crusted fish of whatever type. Pecan pork loin is another common dish around here.

Michael