The Altitude Adjustment Section
Pecan or walnut pie is pretty simple and tasty. But at this altitude, they get tricky and often kind of blow up in the oven. So of course, I went to my baking mentor Susan Purdy for the altitude adjustment to make it work perfectly. And Susan kicks it up a notch with a nut crust as well. Yahoo!
Ingredients for crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
6 tablespoons unsalted chilled butter, cut up
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 room temp egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3-5 tablespoons ice water
Procedure for crust
Preheat your oven to 425 and position rack in the bottom 1/3 of the oven. In the bowl of food processor, add together flour, sugar, salt, and nuts and process till nuts are finely chopped. Add butter and shortening and pulse 8 or 9 times, till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add yolk, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water through the feed tube and pulse a few times till mixture begins to clump together. Add more water if necessary, so dough holds together. The dough is ready when it holds its shape when you squeeze it between your fingers. Now gather dough into a ball and press into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll dough on lightly floured surface and fit into a 9-inch pie pan. Press a piece of buttered tin foil into the crust, fill it with pie weights, and pre-bake pastry shell for 15 minutes. Remove foil and check crusts for cracks which can be filled with a little of the left over dough and water. Now prepare the filling.
Ingredients for filling
3 large room temperature eggs
6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
2/3 cup dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pecan or walnut halves
Procedure to assemble
Reduce oven temp to 350. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together brown sugar, eggs. Now mix in all the remaining ingredients except for the nuts. Pour filling into crust and top with nuts. Place on a sheet pan and place in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes till firm, puffed, and jiggly. Nice with whipped cream.
