One 9″ flaky pie crust. This is where people fall down on the job. I like this recipe and in fact have used it for the last dozen pies or so and it’s been foolproof. If you have to buy a crust, FINE (*eyeroll*) just don’t tell me about it.
You need to partially prebake the crust. I’m telling you this now because it adds, easily, an hour to the process.
Filling:
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (none of the light stuff, now)
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup butterscotch chips
Pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 cups chopped pecans
I’m going to assume that your crust has been prebaked, cooled and is sitting waiting for your filling. Set your oven to 350. Warm the corn syrup, the brown sugar and the butter over low heat in a saucepan on the stovetop. Stir until the butter has melted. Remove the mixture from the heat. Add the butterscotch chips and set aside for five minutes, shaking occasionally to distribute the chips and coat them with the liquid. Add salt and whisk to smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and the yolk until frothy. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk. Add the hot liquid and whisk until smooth. Add the pecans and stir gently to distribute. Pour filling into the cooled pie crust. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350, turning the pie 180 degrees halfway through baking.
Cool finished pie on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
More than a year ago, facing a half empty nest, I turned to pie. I decided I would learn, through trial and error, practice and reading, to make really fantastic pie. I blogged about my pie adventures, calling the new category Life of Pie. I began baking my way through the 300 pie recipes in this book growing in confidence despite the occasional pie failure.
Undaunted, I continued to bake, even making a Peaches n’ Cream pie and a Smoothest Peanut Butter Pie for an event attended by his highness, The Food Geek who found them delicious.
Last Friday, I took the day off work and for 13 hours baked myself silly, creating seven total pies. Three of them were entered into C’ville Pie Fest, three were donated to the raffle to benefit PACEM and one (due to family demand) stayed at home.
The C’ville Pie Fest was nothing short of amazing — 27 bakers, more than 30 pies, a star-studded panel of judges and lots of money raised for a wonderful charity.
No, I didn’t win. (Sigh.) But I’ll have you know that two of the judges awarded perfect scores for my Butterscotch Pecan Pie, so put that on your fork and eat it.
All right — just this ONE LAST THING then I will shut up about pie already — until the fall. Enjoy! (Thanks, for the gazillionth time, to @stevewhitaker for this video and for just being Steve.)
