Overview
This is one of my dad’s favourites. I always make it for his birthday. Don’t overfill the pie casing – any leftover filling can be made into little muffins, or cook up the leftover pastry into casings to make tartlets (I’m never that organised). Adapted from Michel Roux’s Pastry.
Time
Set aside 2-3 hours to make this, or make the pastry a day ahead.
| Ingredients: Pastry (pate sablee) | Ingredients: Filling |
| 250g plain flour 200g butter 100g icing sugar pinch of salt 2 egg yolks | 230g softened butter 80g maple syrup 150g caster sugar 3 eggs 330g pecan halves 50g plain flour |
Equipment
Food processor (or work by hand… *shudder*)
Handheld beater
Pie tin
Weights for blind baking – dry rice or legumes will do the trick
Method: Pastry
1 – Place flour, sugar, salt and butter in the food processor. Blitz until well blended.
2 – Add the yolks, then pulse until the dough forms a ball.
3 – Form a smooth ball on the bench, then wrap in Glad Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180° C
4 – Roll pastry to 3mm thick. Gently ease into a flan tin or small cake tin. Press into all corners and trim roughly. Chill for 30 minutes.
5 – Prick the base of the pastry case. Trim the case, line with Glad Bake and Fill with weights.
6 – Blind bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the weights and paper.
7 – Bake for another 5 minutes
Bake leftover pastry as butter biscuits for snacking.
Method: Filling
Reduce oven temperature to 170° C
1 – Beat together butter, maple syrup and sugar until creamy.
2 – Work in eggs one at a time, beating to fully incorporate each one.
3 – Reserve 80-100g of the best pecan halves and coarsely chop the rest. Add the nuts and flour to the filling and mix together with a spoon. Do not overmix.
Method: Assembly
1 – Pour filling into pastry case. Do not overfill.
2 – Smooth the top, then arrange the remaining pecan halves on top. Concentric circles for the win!
3 – Bake for 20-25 minutes (flan tin) or longer (cake time) until the top is golden brown and firm.
4 – Leave pie to cool (if using a flan tin, remove the ring) to make it easier to slice and serve.
Serve warm with ice cream.