Pecan Pie Baked in a Wood Cookstove

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  The Midwest watched winter storm Cara travel through our area of the country on Thanksgiving, giving us a thin layer of ice and making travel rather iffy, so we moved our family's celebration to Friday.  This allowed me some extra time to complete the Thanksgiving baking.  School was canceled today due to winter storm Delphi which delivered ice and wet snow today, making everything messy, but giving me time to check papers all day and blog tonight.

I wanted to share the pecan pie recipe that I use.  I copied this recipe out of my paternal grandmother's recipe box when I was in college.  I think she may have gotten it from my aunt Marlene, but I don't know that for sure.  Truthfully, I don't remember Granny ever making this pie, but my mother does, and Mom was the one who told me that it was very good.  I talked about this recipe way back in my first post about baking pies, and I showed a picture of the one that I dropped on the floor of the summer kitchen. 

That was very depressing, but this year everything worked extremely well.

This recipe has proportions for both 8" and 9" pies, so the first thing you need to do is to line the pie pan of your choice with an unbaked crust.  You can find the recipe that I use for pie crust here.

 

For an 8" pie, you will need:

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup melted butter

3/4 cup dark corn syrup

3/4 cup pecan pieces or halves

 

 

For a 9" pie, you will need:

3 eggs

2/3 c. sugar

1/3 tsp. salt

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup dark corn syrup

1 cup pecan pieces or halves

 

The first thing that I do is put the butter in the mixing bowl and put it in the warming oven to melt.  At this point, you should be managing your fire in such a way that you will soon have a moderately hot oven (375 degrees). 

 

Please pardon the quality of this photograph.  This is the butter
melting in the warming oven.

Next, beat the granulated sugar, salt, and eggs together.  I used three duck eggs, and the quality of the pie was excellent.

 

The granulated sugar, salt, and butter.

 

The eggs ready to be beaten into the butter/sugar mixture and the
dark corn syrup measured and ready.

 

Add the corn syrup and the pecans and beat again.

 

Pour the custard mixture into your pastry-lined pie plate.

Another poor picture.  I need to hire a photographer.

Bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees Fahrenheit) until the custard is set and the pastry is nicely browned.  This usually takes about 40 - 50 minutes.  The custard will mound up in the center, and a knife inserted halfway between the edge and the center should come out clean.

 

Once the pie comes out of the oven, the custard will fall in the center, and the pie will take on the customary pecan pie shape.  After it is cool, I think it is best when served with whipped cream.  Since it is a custard pie, we always refrigerate it.

 

You know, I've baked several pecan pies over the years, but I don't think that I have ever baked one in a modern oven.  Hmmm.

 

God has richly blessed us this year, and I hope He has done the same for you.