Pecan Pie

Grandma Flora

This is a recipe from my husband's Grandma Flora. She doesn't remember where she got it, but she has probably had it published in her church cookbook at some point. Everyone in his family uses this recipe, and now you can, too! We have it for just about every holiday meal, since pecan pie is definitely the family favorite.

I do not feel one bit guilty for using store-bought pie crusts for this recipe; honestly, I think it turns out better as a thinner pie than the thicker, deep dish pie that it would be with my pie pans. Also: Grandma does it.

FULL INGREDIENT LIST

2 tbsp soft butter

2 tbsp flour

3 eggs

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp salt

1 deep dish or 2 regular pie crusts

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: on this episode we are not going to be
[00:10]: cooking from a book and i will try to
[00:12]: give you
[00:12]: all of the measurements because this is
[00:15]: a
[00:15]: family recipe from my husband's family
[00:18]: for
[00:19]: pecan pie this is a standard pecan pie
[00:22]: no extra additions just
[00:23]: plain old pecan pie but it turns out
[00:26]: well every time
[00:27]: and everybody we know uses this recipe
[00:31]: from
[00:31]: that originally we got from his
[00:33]: grandmother and she doesn't remember
[00:34]: where she got it from so
[00:37]: that's what we're gonna do today and i
[00:40]: already have
[00:40]: in my bowl um two tablespoons of butter
[00:44]: i'm using salted because that's what i
[00:47]: have out on the counter and this should
[00:48]: be soft
[00:49]: and two tablespoons of flour now i'm
[00:52]: going to use a fork to kind of combine
[00:54]: these
[00:55]: um before i add anything to it
[00:58]: now i have to say this recipe
[01:03]: does not include a lot of instructions
[01:05]: so i have sort of
[01:08]: come up with um
[01:11]: a method myself mostly
[01:15]: because what i have is this
[01:19]: my husband got the recipe from i think
[01:21]: his father who got it from his
[01:22]: grandmother and he just sort of
[01:24]: scribbled it down
[01:25]: and it's on the back of a printout and
[01:28]: we have to find it every year
[01:30]: uh when or every time we want to make
[01:31]: the pie so
[01:33]: all right so i'm just going to try to
[01:35]: get this as
[01:37]: incorporated as i can because that
[01:40]: flower will help you
[01:42]: help the pie to set
[01:46]: and be less runny and i want it to
[01:50]: go throughout the pie and the fork just
[01:54]: is a lot more sturdy than
[01:58]: a whisk let me get all of it off of here
[02:01]: with a whisk there we go
[02:05]: and now to this i'm going to add three
[02:08]: whole
[02:08]: eggs um they are not at room temperature
[02:11]: they just
[02:12]: came out of my refrigerator there's no
[02:15]: indication that they should be at room
[02:16]: temperature they just
[02:19]: are eggs
[02:22]: three eggs large eggs
[02:26]: probably it just says three eggs i just
[02:28]: always use large
[02:29]: and i'm just going to um start to get
[02:32]: this all incorporated and it won't come
[02:34]: together perfectly at this point but
[02:36]: that is fine
[02:38]: and then i'm going to add a cup of
[02:42]: light brown sugar nothing uh nothing too
[02:46]: fancy here we're just going to get it
[02:49]: all combined
[02:53]: and with this whisk i'm trying to get
[02:55]: that butter and flour mixture sort of
[02:59]: better combined throughout
[03:05]: you could probably use a mixer for this
[03:08]: i just never have
[03:11]: it's not that hard
[03:17]: it's okay if you have some little bits
[03:19]: of butter and flour mixture it's fine
[03:22]: here i have one cup of
[03:25]: light corn syrup
[03:29]: and i love these um plungers type type
[03:33]: um measuring cups for corn syrup and
[03:36]: honey
[03:37]: and peanut butter and sour cream and
[03:39]: things like that
[03:44]: all right and the last thing i need to
[03:47]: add to this before i actually add my
[03:48]: pecans
[03:49]: is some vanilla um i need
[03:54]: to go find the lid eventually but i need
[03:59]: a teaspoon of vanilla and i almost
[04:02]: always use this
[04:04]: mexican vanilla that i get at pensies
[04:09]: my assistant has retrieved the lid for
[04:13]: me
[04:15]: and some salt now i used salted butter
[04:19]: but really my salt is not all that salty
[04:23]: so it doesn't really matter um
[04:27]: so that's a quarter teaspoon it was a
[04:28]: teaspoon of vanilla and a quarter
[04:30]: teaspoon
[04:31]: of salt um and just get that all mixed
[04:35]: up
[04:39]: and that is the base of your pie
[04:44]: [Music]
[04:47]: now i need to go get a rubber spatula
[04:59]: okay so the only other thing that i need
[05:01]: to add to this
[05:03]: is some chopped pecans
[05:06]: you can do whatever you like in regards
[05:10]: to the pecans
[05:10]: but in my opinion
[05:14]: the pie cuts so much nicer when you have
[05:18]: a relatively fine chop on the pecans it
[05:20]: doesn't look as pretty
[05:22]: i think i saw someone talking about how
[05:25]: it kind of looked like ground beef and
[05:26]: it was really hard to get a very pretty
[05:28]: picture
[05:29]: of her pecan pie because the chopped
[05:31]: pecans just don't look so pretty
[05:34]: but practically i prefer chopped pecans
[05:38]: and i've talked
[05:38]: about how we use a nut chopper this is
[05:41]: what ours looks like this is our new one
[05:43]: our old one still worked but we had um
[05:45]: the lid
[05:47]: got trapped in the against the heating
[05:50]: element in the dishwasher and it kind of
[05:52]: melted so we were down to one
[05:53]: lid but i like this one a lot actually
[05:57]: and you can chop it fine
[06:01]: or coarse depending on which way you
[06:05]: turn the crank uh although i don't see
[06:08]: a huge difference in them honestly
[06:11]: so i don't really bother to care
[06:14]: much um they're all relatively fine
[06:18]: and it has measurements here and so
[06:21]: we're going to add
[06:21]: one cup of chopped pecans and i measure
[06:24]: that
[06:24]: after it's been chopped
[06:30]: and there you go they just go in like
[06:32]: that
[06:34]: and
[06:37]: get them stirred in to the rest of your
[06:40]: pie mixture
[06:47]: there we go i'm gonna clean up just a
[06:50]: little bit
[06:51]: and then i'll fill the pie crust and
[06:52]: talk to you about how we bake this
[06:55]: so i have my uh oven preheated at 350
[06:59]: non-convection and i have two
[07:04]: regular pre-made pie crusts and i feel
[07:06]: perfectly fine about doing that because
[07:08]: this is what grandma does
[07:10]: she has a pre-made pie crust and she
[07:13]: makes them in the
[07:14]: regular the thinner pies and i prefer
[07:18]: them that way
[07:18]: you can make one deep dish pie with this
[07:22]: or two of these thinner pies and i think
[07:25]: the ratio works better
[07:29]: with the thinner pies so while i could
[07:31]: have made a pie crust and put it in my
[07:34]: um my pretty pie dish and baked one pie
[07:38]: we're gonna bake two using the
[07:41]: store-bought pie crusts and i've got
[07:43]: them on
[07:44]: a baking tray just so if anything kind
[07:47]: of overflows it will be fine and also
[07:49]: it's easier to take it in and out of the
[07:51]: um of the oven that way because those
[07:56]: tin can get kind of wobbly and i'm just
[07:59]: going to split this
[08:00]: roughly evenly between
[08:05]: these pie crusts
[08:13]: and you can see one of them's kind of
[08:15]: broken that will be fine
[08:18]: nobody's gonna care if their crust is a
[08:22]: little bit
[08:22]: broken um
[08:28]: so that is you know roughly evenly
[08:30]: distributed between two
[08:32]: you can be a little bit more precise if
[08:34]: you want to
[08:35]: grandma wouldn't do that so
[08:40]: there we go
[08:41]: [Music]
[08:43]: i'm going to kind of there we go
[08:47]: yes has raw accent i don't care i'm
[08:50]: going to put these in the oven
[08:51]: sort of in the middle of the oven and
[08:54]: they're going to cook at 350 for 15
[08:56]: minutes
[08:57]: and then we're going to turn the oven
[08:58]: down to 300 degrees and cook them for
[09:01]: about
[09:02]: 45 minutes and when they come out i'm
[09:04]: going to show you what they look like
[09:06]: because it is important that you not
[09:08]: over bake these slightly under baking is
[09:10]: co
[09:11]: is is okay but over baking um it'll burn
[09:14]: more
[09:14]: it'll be drier it'll it won't be as good
[09:18]: but i'm going to show you what you're
[09:19]: looking for when they come out of the
[09:21]: oven
[09:22]: after about an hour so that's 15 minutes
[09:25]: at 350
[09:26]: and then 45 minutes at 300. so
[09:29]: we'll be back in about an hour okay so
[09:32]: my pies have just come out of the oven
[09:34]: it's actually been a little bit
[09:35]: less than 45 minutes but you see how
[09:38]: they
[09:40]: they kind of wobble a little bit in the
[09:42]: middle when you move them
[09:45]: it's hard to show that on the camera but
[09:47]: you they're a little wobbly so they're
[09:50]: not
[09:51]: overcooked but they're just perfect
[09:54]: um so i'm gonna take them out and let
[09:56]: them cool and then we can enjoy them
[09:59]: um i would say a deep dish
[10:03]: pie might take longer
[10:06]: to bake i would definitely do 15 minutes
[10:09]: at 450
[10:10]: 450 350 not 450 and then
[10:14]: finish it at 300 until it is done all
[10:18]: right
[10:18]: we'll let you know how they taste
[10:21]: [Music]
[10:29]: on this episode of cooking the books
[10:31]: with heather you've watched me make
[10:33]: my husband's grandmother's pecan pie
[10:36]: a family recipe
[10:39]: that we make every year around the
[10:40]: holidays and
[10:42]: these kids have had it before but
[10:44]: they're going to taste it for you i
[10:45]: wanted to show you though that it
[10:47]: this is still warm a little bit from the
[10:48]: oven not hot though you don't want you
[10:50]: want to wait till it cools down to cut
[10:51]: it
[10:52]: um but you can see perhaps that there
[10:55]: is a layer of um filling and then
[10:59]: the pecans sort of form a second layer
[11:01]: on top
[11:02]: which is why i prefer a thinner
[11:05]: crust here because you get sort of a
[11:07]: thinner layer of the
[11:09]: filling versus
[11:13]: a really thick layer of filling and then
[11:14]: like a thin layer of pecans on top this
[11:16]: is sort of a better ratio
[11:19]: for me um so they're going to give it a
[11:21]: try
[11:23]: what is in there anyway what it's pecan
[11:26]: pie
[11:27]: it's sweet delicious act like you
[11:32]: had it before i haven't you have
[11:36]: your hello try it
[11:42]: i have taught them to use silverware i
[11:43]: swear
[11:45]: all right so what do you think annabelle
[11:49]: i like cake and pie you like it it's
[11:51]: good it's this is your favorite type of
[11:53]: pecan pie isn't it you don't like it
[11:55]: she doesn't like it when there's things
[11:57]: added like chocolate or anything like
[11:59]: that she doesn't like it when it's super
[12:01]: thick she does like
[12:05]: whipped cream so she would like that on
[12:07]: top and
[12:08]: maybe also ice cream vanilla ice cream
[12:12]: on top would be great especially when
[12:13]: it's warm no you don't want ice cream
[12:15]: so she prefers chocolate ice cream uh
[12:18]: they
[12:18]: both really like crust even though this
[12:21]: is not homemade crust it is still a good
[12:23]: crust and i like this recipe because as
[12:26]: you can tell it's very
[12:28]: not yours it is very easy to put
[12:32]: together
[12:33]: um all in one bowl uh
[12:36]: not difficult measurements nothing that
[12:39]: you have to do
[12:40]: separate steps for
[12:43]: um and you can use store-bought pie
[12:46]: crusts and you don't have to blind bake
[12:48]: them
[12:49]: that's always a plus for me so
[12:52]: i'm going to cover the cover this one in
[12:56]: aluminum foil after my husband and i
[12:58]: both have a piece
[12:60]: and um this will keep for you know a few
[13:02]: days on the counter
[13:04]: and then this one i'm probably going to
[13:06]: cover in plastic wrap and then aluminum
[13:08]: foil and put it in the freezer
[13:10]: so we can have it again another time so
[13:12]: we'll have two pecan pies
[13:15]: the pecan chewy pie and then this pie oh
[13:17]: that's a good thing
[13:18]: remember the pecan chewy pie that we
[13:20]: made the other
[13:22]: pecan pie that we made recently that you
[13:23]: tried on camera
[13:26]: do you prefer oh excuse me do you prefer
[13:28]: this one
[13:29]: or that one that the other one
[13:32]: you prefer the other one you prefer this
[13:34]: one so
[13:36]: i want what decision here
[13:39]: i think i think he is maybe not going to
[13:42]: finish his
[13:43]: except for the crust so i might get
[13:45]: another
[13:46]: piece we'll see anyway if you enjoyed
[13:49]: watching me make this and watching them
[13:52]: taste it you please give us a thumbs up
[13:54]: subscribe and come back and watch us
[13:56]: make something else next week
[13:59]: me what
[14:02]: watching me yeah if they liked watching
[14:06]: you taste it
[14:07]: they did did they i don't know we'll see
[14:10]: comment what you think so yeah