How to Make the Best Pecan Pie Ever!

Recipe: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19pU4R1EjiEbLPVebNlWsKcyx3QgayE5s/view?usp=sharing

I am so glad you’re here! Together, we’re making a classic pecan pie with a special technique to elevate the filling’s flavor. This homemade pie recipe uses a flaky crust, sweet gooey filling, and crunchy toasted pecans for a delicious dessert!

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https://amzn.to/4gkOf2U Digital Thermometer
https://amzn.to/4n3TGFW Coarse Grater
https://amzn.to/47JrbJ4 Stainless 1.5 Qt. Saucepan
https://amzn.to/48gBbcQ Pie Crust Shield Protector

00:00-01:49 Toast Pecans
01:49-08:57 Make Crust
08:57-09:50 Chop Nuts
09:50-13:07 Brown Butter
13:07-17:17 Form Crust
17:17-20:54 Make Filling
20:54-23:46 Bake
23:46-26:14 Enjoy!!

I am so glad you’re here. Together, we’re going to take this classic holiday pie. We’re going to elevate the flavor of the filling using a special technique. This pie will have a flaky, buttery, tender crust, a sweet, gooey filling, and crunchy toasted pecans. Before we get started, the recipe for this bake is in the description below. The ingredients are there. All the measurements, the tools I’m using for today, everything is in the description box below. The first thing we’re going to do is lightly toast pecan halves. You can actually get chopped pecans. I didn’t actually. These are whole, so I will have to chop them. But you need 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped nuts. That is 180 g. I’m just going to spread them out. We’re going to put them in the oven at 350°. That’s 175 C for like 5 to 7 minutes. And really, we’re just drawing out those nice oils and flavors. So, I’m going to put these in the oven. The pecans have been in the oven for about 8 minutes, so I’m going to take them out of the oven. They are nicely toasted. This will make them crunchier and um just more flavorful. I’m going to set these aside to cool while we make our pie crust. Just want to show you the difference, the richness, the depth of color between these nuts. So, roasting really does make a difference. These are nice and brown. Grab a mediumsized bowl. We’re going to put flour in this. I’m using a scale. And I just want to say, just so you know, I’m not here to sell you a scale. I am here to help you become a better baker. And one of the tips that I keep sharing, um, people are wondering why their bake is dry. Flour is a very packing ingredient. And so, if you’re not careful, you’re getting too much flour in your bake. So, if you use a scale, this E Teet one, I just got it. I’ve been through three different ones. It is so nice. It’s just touch, you zero it out, and you pour. You don’t have to use measuring cups. I have something sitting here I want to share very quickly with you cuz we’re busy and we have to bake. But I want to say this. This is the normal cup that I use to measure flour out. I scooped flour into this this morning. I did three cups just as an experiment. And the standard measurement for three cups of flour is 375 grams. I measured three cups out. I put it on this scale and I ended up with almost 400 g. That’s like a quarter of a cup more than I should have. And then I did the scooping method where you just dip it in and then level it off. And there’s a lot of people that do that as well. I ended up with 428 grams. That’s a half of a cup more than I should have in my mixture. So, I just want to say I’m encouraging you to check out a scale. I have a link for this one. There’s there’s lots of good ones out there, but I have a link for this one if you’re interested and just give this a try. You will get exact measurements and then you never have to second guess if your bake is dry that it’s maybe because you got too much flour. That being said, we’re going to put 150 gram of flour in this bowl. And that is a cup and a quarter. So, we have 1 and 1/4 cups of flour in here. 150 g. We’re going to add a half of a teaspoon of salt. That’s 3 g. And then we’re adding 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar. That is 6 g. And we’re going to give this a good whisk. I’m going to make sure this is all incorporated. While I’m whisking this, I just want to share something with you. The reason we’re adding sugar in is not because we want this sweeter. The reason we’re adding sugar in is because of science. Flowers proteins require water to form the elastic network known as gluten. Sugar interferes with the gluten development that leads to a more tender and flaky pie crust. So sugar actually attracts and holds on to moisture. So what we’re doing is inhibiting the proteins from forming gluten. Gluten is structure and we don’t want structure. We want tender and flaky. Now I have 113 gram of butter. This is a half of a cup. And I’m going to grate it right into this flour mixture. You if you don’t have a grater, you can always do cut this into cubes and blend it in here with a pastry blender. You can even use a food processor. What you want ultimately is little tiny bits of butter, like really tiny um lentil size pieces into the flour. So, I’m going to grate this. This is not frozen. It’s just refrigerated and it doesn’t take very long. Once you get your butter all grated, isn’t that so pretty? It’s just a beautiful pile of little shreds of butter. This is the easiest way to incorporate your butter into this mixture. Now, we’re going to give it a gentle toss. Another way to inhibit gluten from forming is having fat coating the flour. So, as we’re doing this, the the pieces of fat are actually coating some of the flour. So, I just want to show you the texture in case you can’t see it. It’s just a nice crumbly little mixture. Now, we’re gonna add water. I have some ice water here. The measurement here doesn’t matter so much. I just wanted some some water to be chilled. We’re going to start with a/4 of a cup of water. That is 60 ml. This is four tablespoons. Going to give that a stir. Then you’re just going to add one tablespoon at a time. You just kind of use your observation skills. What you’re looking for is the dough to start coming together. Uh when it starts clumping, when you see less and less of the dry powdery and more of it forming a ball, that’s what you’re looking for. You do not want it sticky, but just nicely forming a ball. So, I’m going to do another two tablespoons. That is 30 milliliters more. And I think that will do. Usually that’s what I end up doing, but I always start lower first. It’s easier to add water in. You cannot take it back out. Good rule of thumb. And this should do. I’m starting to see it coming together. So now you just use your hands. And what I do is just start pushing it up onto the sides. You want to form it into a ball. And while you’re doing that, you’re kind of just pressing it and you’re gathering the dry particles. And hydration is a a tricky kind of thing. Depending on the flower, the type of flower you’re using, or even the elevation you’re in where you live, hydration happens in in different levels. So if you need to add more, if it’s way too dry, add another tablespoon. And if you feel like it’s coming together nicely, then just form it into a ball. Once you have your dough in a ball, you want to just form it into a disc. We’re going to wrap this in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for 20 about 20 minutes. That gives the dough, like the the gluten, a chance to relax and the butter a chance to set. While our pie dough is resting in the refrigerator, we’re going to chop our pecans. We need 1 and 1/2 cups. And these can be just roughly chopped. That is 180 g. Okay. So, there is 1 and 1/2 cup nuts. That is 180 gram. And here’s a helpful little tip for you. When a recipe calls for one and a half or whatever the amount of chopped nuts is, you get your whole nuts, you chop them, and then you put them in and you measure from there. If you just use the whole nuts, um the volumes are different, so you want to make sure you chop them and then measure. So, this is 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped nuts. Put that aside for now. We’re going to brown butter. This recipe calls for four tablespoons of melted unsalted butter. That’s 56 grams. Instead of melting it, just traditionally, we’re going to brown it. So, you need a a stainless pot, something that’s light in color. If it’s aluminum, that would be fine, too. But you need something that’s light in color because as you’re browning the butter, you have to monitor the color. Once it starts to get to a certain dark caramelly color, then you remove it from the heat source. All right. So, we’re gonna come on over here to the stove. We’re gonna put our butter into the pan. We’re going to turn the media the the heat on medium. While this is melting, I just wanted to explain a couple things because we have like a minute or two. So, if you’re wondering why why brown butter, this process transforms a onedimensional butter flavor into something that is more complex and rich. It’s the same as roasting a coffee bean or searing a steak or toasting a piece of bread. You’re bringing out the more complex flavors. Phase two is a very loud and bubbly phase. It’ll take two to three minutes. Again, just stir it here and there. And basically, if you see what’s going on here, the water that’s in the butter is now evaporating. So, now the butter is starting to brown. This is where the milk solids float to the bottom of the pan and they start to toast and brown. This is where you start to get those those deep and complex flavors building. You can see the foam on top. If you just swirl it around a little, you can see the um browning taking place underneath. So, you want to take this to as dark as you can without burning it, obviously. So, we’re just going to keep an eye on this. I’d say that is a good rich color. So, now we’re going to move it off of the heat and we want to pour it immediately into a measuring cup. You want to make sure that you pour in all of those little bits of butter. Lots of flavor there. So, you can see that beautiful color. It’s nice and deep and rich. This is so much better than just plain melted butter. Lots and lots of nutty and um caramelized flavors in there. Now, I will say when you cook butter, when you when you do what we just did, that process removed the liquid. It removed the water from it. So, we actually need to add a little tiny bit back in. Uh the rule of thumb is for one stick of butter or 113 g, you would add two tablespoons back in. And so, for this amount, we’re adding just about a tablespoon in. And I’m bringing it right up to the 1/4 cup mark. We are going to roll our pie dough out. You need a 9 in pan or a 23 cm. How do I know? It says so right there. It’s very handy. This chilled for like 20 minutes, so it should be good to go. You want to lightly flour your surface. Put some flour on the dough and some flour on your rolling pin. You don’t want this to stick at all. Start working from the center out. And you just kind of want to keep it moving. You don’t ever want it to stick. And so that’s kind of part of the process. You just flip it, move it around on the mat some, always making sure that it’s not sticking anywhere. This is about how thin it should be. It’s like about a quarter of an inch. So that’s about six mm thick. Now I’ve folded it over. Put your pie pan there. Slide your fingers under. Make them like a paddle kind of flat. And just slide it right onto the pan about halfway. And then you just want to flip this over. And there is our lovely pie crust ready to go. So, you want to just kind of lift it, nudge it in there gently. Don’t pull it. Don’t stretch it. If you pull it and stretch it, it it will stretch back when it bakes. You just want to kind of guide it in there gently. Make sure it’s around the edges. And then we’re just going to trim up the edges. I usually leave about uh like one inch out from the pan and just go the whole way around. So, this edge is about 2 and 1/2 cm. It doesn’t have to be exact. I usually just try to leave about the same the whole way around. And then I just take that and tuck it under when I’m done. Okay. Now, this overhang, you just want to tuck it underneath just like that the whole way around. This will give it a little bit of a sturdier structure at the top. [Music] Then you can leave it like this if you want. I usually do some kind of crimping. Uh this there’s all kinds of different ways. I’m just going to use my finger and thumb and kind of pinch make a scalloped little edge. [Music] This makes it look prettier and more finished. And there. Look how pretty that looks. Now, this needs to go into the freezer. I would say probably at least 30 minutes. 45 minutes is even better. When this goes into the oven, you want it to be frozen. Butter crusts are they can they can um weep. They can sag a little bit. So, you want to make sure that this is frozen when it goes into the oven. So, I’m going to put this in the freezer. And while this is freezing, this is a good time for us to make our filling. So, I just thought of a rhyme. While the pie crust is chilling, we’re going to make our filling. Turn your oven to 400°, that’s 200 Celsius. You need a large bowl. I am doing uh my scale again because one of my least favorite things to do is measure out honey or molasses or kro syrup cuz it’s really hard to get out of the measuring cup once you get it in there. So, I’m pouring it directly into the bowl. We need one cup, 240 ml or 350 g. Now we’re going to add granulated sugar in. This is 3/4 of a cup. That’s 150 g. Then we’re adding three whole eggs in. And now we are going to whisk. Okay, now the fun part. We worked hard for this and we get to put our uh brown butter in now. All those beautiful little bits that has a really nice smell. Once you’re sure you have your butter mixed in, add two teaspoon of vanilla. That’s 10 milliliters. And then this last very important step, salt. This is really important. We have one big giant sweet note here. This helps you to just kind of taste the sweet. It enhances the flavor and just kind of really seasons it a bit. That’s 3/4 of a teaspoon and that’s 4.5 g. This is looking really nice and caramelly. Our pie crust is frozen solid. Perfect. Now, we’re going to add the pecans right onto the top of the crust. You can stir them in here, but this is just as easy. Just put them right in there. If you can see that or not. And then we pour our filling right on top. Look at that. Yum. Look how cool this is. The pecans float right to the top. Now, I’m going to do one extra step before we put this in the oven. I’m going to beautify it a little and make it a little more special. I am putting pecan halves the whole way around this. [Music] So, I’m putting this on a baking sheet just because it’s so much easier to handle this whole thing on this instead of this very wobbly dish. We’re putting this in the oven for 10 minutes at 400° 200 Celsius. Then, without opening the oven, go ahead and reduce your heat to 350. That’s 180° C. and we’ll bake it for another 30 to 35 minutes. I’m going to go ahead and get this the in the oven and I’ll explain a couple things to you. I just wanted to share with you while the pie is in the oven, um what we’re looking for at the end is the crust is going to be brown. If you get to a point where you feel like the pie still has 20 or 30 minutes to bake and the crust is really browning, you can put a pie shield on to protect it from burning. You can tent it with foil just to make sure that it doesn’t get too dark before the center of the pie is done. So the the pie itself the it’ll start to look set. It’ll still be jiggly in the center, but I’m actually using a digital thermometer. So if you have one of these, these are a lifesaver. This has saved me many times from taking things out too early and not leaving them in too long. So, I’m actually going to stick the probe of this in the pie. Uh, and when it’s closer, when it looks like it’s done, I’m looking for an internal temperature of 200° F or 93 C. Once I see that, I will be ensured that the pie is done, the filling is set, and then I will take it out. So, I will see you back here in a little bit. So, I’m checking the pie now. I had to leave it in about 15 minutes longer. I’m pretty sure that’s because I used a glass pie dish and they take longer to heat up initially. I am going to check with our thermometer here and we’ll kind of see where we’re at here. Looks just beautiful, but let’s see. Yep, it’s over 200. So, it is done. Yay. And it’s beautiful. I can see it’s puffed up a little bit. And the crust looks nice and golden brown. That is a beauty. This definitely needs to cool 3 or 4 hours. I want it to be completely at room temperature and it’s super super hot right now. So, I will see you back here later on. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the smells. Well, we did it together. We made this classic, beautiful pecan pie. We took the chance to elevate the flavor by browning the butter. The pie is cool and it’s ready for a taste test and I volunteer. [Music] Wow, look at that. That looks amazing. I’m going to try a bite. It is perfect. It’s absolutely perfect. There’s an amazing flavor and texture contrast. The crust is really nice and crisp and buttery. Then there’s that beautiful gooey filling and the crunchy pecans. So, here’s a couple more notes I just wanted to make. I want you to see this filling. This is perfectly set. This is such a good recipe. It’s not runny and oozing out and it’s not dry and stodgy. It is just done to perfection. There’s the right amount of goo there. And I also want to say this, don’t skip the step of putting extra pecans on the top. These roasted pecans add a whole new flavor level. I was just eating this pie noting that there’s this um unsweet but just this beautiful nutty roasted flavor. One more level of flavor for this pie. So, don’t skip this step. This is so good. I hope you get the chance to make it and I hope at some point this becomes one of your fall favorites. If you enjoyed making this pie, check out my pie playlist and I will see you in the next video.