Thanksgiving 2010: Pecan Pie

My second offering for Thanksgiving was a pecan pie. I decided to pair Pioneer Woman's pie filling with a pie dough using Michael Ruhlman's Ratio app.

I decided to use half butter and half shortening for my pie crust after reading this tutorial on Epicurious.

Thanks, Chao for picking up the shortening for me!

Took some smart advice from blogs and retail reporters to stock up on baking essentials the week before Thanksgiving. Prices on ingredients like nuts and butter were way lower than normal.

Pie crust is another great use for the food processor. Fit the bowl with the dough blade and pulse the butter and fat together until crumbly. Then, add ice water bit by bit until a sticky dough forms.

My dough went into the refrigerator over night, then I rolled it out between two pieces of wax paper (harder than it sounds, actually).

Roll the crust over the wax paper, then lay into a pie dish. Trim the edges and cover until ready to fill.

(pretty good for my first real pie crust, huh?)

And again, we were a little pressed for time, so I just whipped up PW's pie filling in a tupperware and brought it with us. We baked the pie at Jake's while we were eating dinner.

It's entirely true that I should not have brought a pie to someone else's thanksgiving that I had never made before in my life. It's also entirely true that I should have listened to PW's note at the bottom of the recipe, where she clearly warns that the bake time for this pie is unpredictable:

"Required baking time seems to vary widely with this recipe. Sometimes it takes 50 minutes; sometimes it takes 75!"

And, indeed, the pie took about 75 minutes. It was soft and beautiful and had a really nice flavor.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, everyone.