Foodie Fun: La Tarte aux Pécans

I recently made a pecan pie for the first time while making a video for my French YouTube channel ElleParle. It was difficult. But, the pie turned out pretty spectacular.

The video is kind of fun, and it has metric conversions for the recipe. But here’s my take on the recipe (based on a recipe from my one and only cookbook: Betty Crocker):

Pecan Pie

Yumminess

Press-in-the-Pan Oil Pastry Crust (no rolling required!)

Things to Use

• 1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp cold water

Things to Do

1. Stir together flour, salt, and a vegetable oil with a wooden spoon. The wooden spoon is very important. It makes everything taste better. At least in your imagination.
2. Intend to sprinkle cold water 1 tbsp at a time, but end up just pouring it all in.
3. Toss with a fork. Giggle at the absurdity. Seriously, I can’t even tell you why that bit is important, but it said it in the book and when I do things for the first time, I try to follow instructions.
4. Gather pastry into a ball and press into the pie plate/pan. Flute edges if you have enough for that sort of thing. I didn’t.

Filling

Things to Use

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter (5 1/3 tbsp!)
• 1/2 cup sugar + 2 tbsp water*
• 1/2 cup of honey*
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup pecan halves

Things to Do

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Beat 2/3 cup sugar, butter, sugar+water, honey, salt, and eggs. I just typed that all out so I’m leaving it, but basically: put everything but the pecans in a bowl and beat with a whisk. No electric mixer required or desired.
3. Stir in pecans.
4. Pour in pie plate without spilling all over the counter.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes. It’s OK if the top looks a bit extra crispy.

*The original recipe calls for 1 cup of corn syrup instead of these ingredients. Personally, I don’t keep corn syrup on hand. I love substitutions.

Happy pie-baking!