The Art of Making a Pecan Pie: A Step-by-Step Guide

One of the most iconic desserts in American cuisine, pecan pie is a classic dessert that requires some finesse to get right. In this article, we'll take you through the process of making a delicious pecan pie from scratch.

**Making the Crust**

The first step in making a pecan pie is to prepare the crust. Unlike traditional pie crusts, our recipe doesn't require blind baking or pre-baking the crust before adding the filling. Instead, we're going to cook the crust along with the filling, which will ensure that it's cooked through and golden brown.

To make the crust, we'll start by mixing together the brown sugar, salt, flour, and water in a bowl. This mixture will form a thick syrup-like consistency, which is perfect for the crust. We won't be cooking this mixture down or reducing it, so we're essentially making our own syrup from scratch. The key here is to mix everything together until they're well combined, without introducing too much air into the mixture.

Using a fork, we'll break up any large chunks of sugar and incorporate them evenly into the mixture. This is an important step, as we don't want to introduce too much air into the crust. We can see that the mixture has started to come together, but we're not going to stop there yet. Next, we'll add in our first egg, followed by the second egg, completely incorporating each one before adding the next. Again, we'll use a fork to avoid introducing too much air.

After the eggs are fully incorporated, we'll add in our evaporated milk and vanilla extract. We're not using a whole can of evaporated milk, as that would result in a overly sweet filling. Instead, we're using just enough to give it a nice texture and flavor. Scraping down the sides of the bowl will ensure that everything is well combined, and we'll stir until the mixture is smooth and even.

**Pouring the Filling into the Crust**

Now that our filling is ready, we can pour it over the pecans in our pie crust. We won't be using a whole can of evaporated milk, but just enough to give it a nice texture and flavor. The key here is to pour it gently over the pecans, allowing them to absorb all the delicious flavors.

**Adding the Pecan Topping**

The final touch to our pecan pie is the pecan topping. We'll simply sprinkle pecan halves over the filling, allowing them to toast nicely in the oven. This will give us a crunchy texture and a nice caramelized flavor.

**Baking the Pie**

With our crust filled with delicious pecan filling and topped with a crunchy pecan topping, we can now bake our pie. The baking time and temperature may change part way through, so be sure to check on it frequently. As you can see, our pie has puffed up nicely in the oven, and the bottom crust is golden brown.

**Serving the Pie**

Finally, it's time to serve our delicious pecan pie! Make sure to cut all the way through the crust when serving, as this will help prevent a big mess. And there you have it - a beautifully presented pecan pie that's sure to impress anyone who tries it. We served ours with a dollop of whipped cream on top and enjoyed every bite.

If you like this recipe, please do like and subscribe, and if you have any recipes you'd like to see Chef Caleb try on the channel, please let us know in the comments below. And remember, always love your food!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enand welcome back to love your food this week we have a really simple recipe for you for a really delicious pecan pie now we wanted something that didn't use syrup we've seen a few recipes for pecan pie show up recently that don't use carrot syrup so we went to chef caleb's family back in texas and found this older recipe and cut the sugar down again so it really tastes like pecans which is our first ingredient so we have some pecans we have some brown sugar we have some eggs a little bit of water a very small amount of flour some salt some vanilla some evaporated milk and also a pie crust so this is just our reliable pie crust i'll put the link to that video in the description below and they'll probably be a card around there as well um and we're going to start off by chopping up our pecans now we're not going to chop all of them we do want to leave a fair amount for the top just for presentation but we're going to chop about a cup and a half now that should be when they're finished and when we're finished chopping them they should be about a cup and a half all the amounts are going to be in the description below and once you've got your pecans chopped we're just going to set those aside and roll out our pie crust once you've done that you've got a pie plate lined with your crust we're just going to put the chopped pecans in the bottom of the pie now you don't need to blind bake this or anything like that it's going to cook the crust at the same time as it cooks your filling and then we're going to make our filling so we're going to start with the brown sugar we're going to mix the sugar with the dry ingredients which is a little unusual so the sugar the salt the flour and the water are all going to go in together we're basically going to make our own syrup for lack of a better term we're not going to cook it down or anything at this point though so we're just going to mix these together until they're well combined and it's going to make a fairly thick mixture it's not going to be a really watery mixture or anything like that it's going to be kind of a sugar slurry and you notice we're using a fork we don't want to incorporate a whole lot of air but this is a great opportunity to break up any big chunks or anything in there after that we're going to add our two eggs one at a time and we're going to completely incorporate each one before adding the next so this is our second egg in fact and again we're going to stick with the fork we don't want to incorporate any more air than we have to you can see we have incorporated some already but we're trying to cut that down as much as we can a whisk will make it a lot a lot airier which will make for a little strange texture on top after the eggs we're going to add in our evaporated milk now it's not a whole can unfortunately it's going to leave you with some leftover evaporated milk but lots of ways to use that you can put it in chili con queso or anything like that and then we're going to add our vanilla and you do want to make sure as you frequently have to with baking you want to make sure you scrape down the sides of your of your mixing bowl here and we're just going to stir all that together until it's well combined and smooth you can see here it's really nice and smooth you want to make sure there's no lumps or anything like that now the evaporated milk has a couple little dollops in there that haven't completely incorporated that's fine we were hoping to avoid getting too many little bubbles on top but i mean it's fine it's not going to hurt anything it will change the texture on top a little bit and we'll see that later so from there we're going to just pour that very gently over the pecans in our pie crust now you can see it doesn't fully fill the crust which is fine because it is going to uh puff up quite a lot it's actually going to souffle quite a bit and we're going to see that when it comes out of the oven but right now we're just going to start with pouring that in letting it settle and then we're going to start decorating the top and we're just going to decorate the whole top with pecan halves um because it's uh really looks amazing and also really tastes good when those pecan halves get nice and toasty on top so we're going to put that on a baking sheet again just in case anything spills over you don't want it in your oven much easier to catch it in a baking sheet and we're going to bake that times and temperatures are in the description below they do change part way through and you can see here it has puffed up a lot it's a little bit jiggly in the middle so this is basically a custard you can see here and it is mostly set it's a little jiggly in the middle it has puffed up a lot it's a big dome now that's going to settle back down uh to where it's you can see it here please excuse the dyed fingers on chef caleb as he's uh pulling the pulling a slice of the pie out do make sure that you cut all the way through the crust when you're making your cuts to serve the pie because otherwise it just makes a big mess and there you go you can see it's holding together really well the bottom crust cooked all the way through there's big chunks of pecan all the way through we served it with a nice big dollop of whipped cream on top and it was delicious because we cut the sugar down so much it really did taste like pecans so not only does it not have any syrup in it but we cut down the sugar that the recipe asked for by quite a bit just because we don't have particularly sweet tooths and we like we like the taste of pecans so if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef caleb try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your foodand welcome back to love your food this week we have a really simple recipe for you for a really delicious pecan pie now we wanted something that didn't use syrup we've seen a few recipes for pecan pie show up recently that don't use carrot syrup so we went to chef caleb's family back in texas and found this older recipe and cut the sugar down again so it really tastes like pecans which is our first ingredient so we have some pecans we have some brown sugar we have some eggs a little bit of water a very small amount of flour some salt some vanilla some evaporated milk and also a pie crust so this is just our reliable pie crust i'll put the link to that video in the description below and they'll probably be a card around there as well um and we're going to start off by chopping up our pecans now we're not going to chop all of them we do want to leave a fair amount for the top just for presentation but we're going to chop about a cup and a half now that should be when they're finished and when we're finished chopping them they should be about a cup and a half all the amounts are going to be in the description below and once you've got your pecans chopped we're just going to set those aside and roll out our pie crust once you've done that you've got a pie plate lined with your crust we're just going to put the chopped pecans in the bottom of the pie now you don't need to blind bake this or anything like that it's going to cook the crust at the same time as it cooks your filling and then we're going to make our filling so we're going to start with the brown sugar we're going to mix the sugar with the dry ingredients which is a little unusual so the sugar the salt the flour and the water are all going to go in together we're basically going to make our own syrup for lack of a better term we're not going to cook it down or anything at this point though so we're just going to mix these together until they're well combined and it's going to make a fairly thick mixture it's not going to be a really watery mixture or anything like that it's going to be kind of a sugar slurry and you notice we're using a fork we don't want to incorporate a whole lot of air but this is a great opportunity to break up any big chunks or anything in there after that we're going to add our two eggs one at a time and we're going to completely incorporate each one before adding the next so this is our second egg in fact and again we're going to stick with the fork we don't want to incorporate any more air than we have to you can see we have incorporated some already but we're trying to cut that down as much as we can a whisk will make it a lot a lot airier which will make for a little strange texture on top after the eggs we're going to add in our evaporated milk now it's not a whole can unfortunately it's going to leave you with some leftover evaporated milk but lots of ways to use that you can put it in chili con queso or anything like that and then we're going to add our vanilla and you do want to make sure as you frequently have to with baking you want to make sure you scrape down the sides of your of your mixing bowl here and we're just going to stir all that together until it's well combined and smooth you can see here it's really nice and smooth you want to make sure there's no lumps or anything like that now the evaporated milk has a couple little dollops in there that haven't completely incorporated that's fine we were hoping to avoid getting too many little bubbles on top but i mean it's fine it's not going to hurt anything it will change the texture on top a little bit and we'll see that later so from there we're going to just pour that very gently over the pecans in our pie crust now you can see it doesn't fully fill the crust which is fine because it is going to uh puff up quite a lot it's actually going to souffle quite a bit and we're going to see that when it comes out of the oven but right now we're just going to start with pouring that in letting it settle and then we're going to start decorating the top and we're just going to decorate the whole top with pecan halves um because it's uh really looks amazing and also really tastes good when those pecan halves get nice and toasty on top so we're going to put that on a baking sheet again just in case anything spills over you don't want it in your oven much easier to catch it in a baking sheet and we're going to bake that times and temperatures are in the description below they do change part way through and you can see here it has puffed up a lot it's a little bit jiggly in the middle so this is basically a custard you can see here and it is mostly set it's a little jiggly in the middle it has puffed up a lot it's a big dome now that's going to settle back down uh to where it's you can see it here please excuse the dyed fingers on chef caleb as he's uh pulling the pulling a slice of the pie out do make sure that you cut all the way through the crust when you're making your cuts to serve the pie because otherwise it just makes a big mess and there you go you can see it's holding together really well the bottom crust cooked all the way through there's big chunks of pecan all the way through we served it with a nice big dollop of whipped cream on top and it was delicious because we cut the sugar down so much it really did taste like pecans so not only does it not have any syrup in it but we cut down the sugar that the recipe asked for by quite a bit just because we don't have particularly sweet tooths and we like we like the taste of pecans so if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef caleb try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your food\n"