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Recipe

Pecan Pie with a Pastry Heart

the one with the heart in the middle

Whole pecan halves, laid out rather than tipped in, and a pastry heart in the middle. It takes four extra minutes and it is the difference between a pie and a present.

The filling is dark, not pale. Dark corn syrup and dark brown sugar, plus a tablespoon of bourbon and an unreasonable amount of salt — the salt is what stops a pecan pie being a wall of sugar, and most recipes use about a quarter of what they should.

And the pecans are toasted before they go in. Raw pecans in a pecan pie taste faintly of nothing and slightly of soap.

Feeds
10
Hands-on
40 minutes
Bake
50 minutes
Set
4 hours, minimum

Four hours of setting before it can be cut, so make it the morning of or the day before.

Pecan pie with a pastry heart at its centre
Shot the night it was made. Open the picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The pastry

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 stick very cold butter, cubed
  • 3–4 tbsp ice water
  • A scrap kept back for the heart

The filling

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup dark corn syrup
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 1 tbsp bourbon
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt — yes, that much
  • 2 1/2 cups pecan halves, toasted

How it goes

  1. 1 — Toast the pecans and cool them

    350°F for eight minutes on a dry tray until they smell nutty. Cooled completely — warm nuts will start cooking the eggs when they meet the filling.

  2. 2 — Blind bake the shell properly

    Lined with parchment and filled with beans, 375°F for twenty minutes, then ten more with the paper out until the base is dry and pale gold. This filling is wet and an unbaked shell has no chance.

  3. 3 — Cut a heart from the pastry scraps

    A small heart cut from the offcuts, chilled on a tray. It goes on at the end, not baked into the filling from the start.

  4. 4 — Whisk the filling gently, no foam

    Eggs, syrup, sugar, melted butter, bourbon, vanilla and salt stirred rather than beaten. Air whipped in now turns into a puffed crown that collapses into a crater.

    pro tip — A teaspoon and a quarter of salt sounds wrong in a dessert. It is the single biggest improvement you can make to a pecan pie.

  5. 5 — Filling in first, then LAY the pecans on top

    Pour the liquid into the shell, then arrange the toasted halves over the surface in rings, face up. They float and stay where you put them, and that is the close-packed look in the picture.

  6. 6 — Heart in the centre, pie into a 350°F oven

    Laid on after the pecans. Fifty minutes, with the edge of the crust shielded by foil for the first thirty so it stays pale.

  7. 7 — Pull it with a slight wobble in the middle

    The centre two inches should still move when you nudge the tin. Baked until completely firm, it will be rubbery once cold.

  8. 8 — Four hours on a rack before anyone cuts it

    It sets as it cools and not before. Warm pecan pie is a lovely sticky mess and it is not sliceable.

Toast the pecans. If you take one thing from this page, take that. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.