Bourbon Pecan Pie

  Since my young life the best tasting, can't beat, go-to recipe for pecan pie was the one on the label of Karo Dark Corn Syrup.

  About 12 years ago I ran across this recipe in an issue of Garden & Gun. Have used this recipe ever since.

There was a from-scratch recipe for the pie crust in the magazine. I have tried it and it is good,  but when in a crunch I use the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts.

My mother taught me to always let the pie sit for several minutes once I've poured it into the pie shell.  This give the pecans a little personal time to get situated and allows them to float to the top.

Bourbon Pecan Pie
Serves 8 - 10
Adapted from Garden and Gun magazine

Ingredients:
1 9-inch pie crust
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups dark corn syrup
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1-1/2 tsp. all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. bourbon
1-1/2 Tbsp. melted sweet butter
2 cups pecan halves

Mise en place:

• roll out the pie disk and fit in a 9-inch pie pan.  Crimp the edges and set aside
• preheat oven to 350°F.
• melt the butter
• crack eggs into a small bowl
• measure out sugar, corn syrup, salt and flour into a large mixing bowl
• measure out the vanilla and bourbon
• measure out pecans

Method:
Using a mixer, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, flour and the eggs, mixing well.  Using a wooden spoon, add the vanilla and bourbon to the mixing bowl and stir to combine.  Add the melted butter and pecan halves and stir to combine.  

Pour into the unbaked pie shell. Let sit for a few minutes to allow, if needed,  pecans to float to the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes (a toothpick inserted in center should come out relatively clean).  If the top of the pie and/or crust look like they are getting too brown during baking cover loosely with foil.

Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack, allowing pie to rest for 2 to 3 hours to set.

*    I bake with an old heavy cookie sheet below the pie plate

*    The syrupy base makes about 3 cups of syrup

Turkey Stock and a Soup to Take the Chill Off

Thanksgiving dinner clean up in our kitchen usually means throwing things together for turkey stock.  It was super easy this year because we had a smaller turkey than usual; a 13 pounder.  I didn't have to get the chain saw out and cut a 20 pound carcass into pieces.

Place your turkey carcass in a 5-1/2 quart Dutch oven (or larger if you have a big turkey).  Now, start going through your refrigerator and pantry and grab anything you can add to help create a rich stock.  I used the rest of my celery, carrots, an onion, garlic, some fresh oregano and rosemary.

I'm too full and tired to start the stock Thanksgiving night so I cover the pot with foil and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning I filled the pot with water, added a little salt and brought the pot to a boil.
Once boiling, I turned the heat down, covered (lid slightly ajar), and simmered for about 4 hours.

Allow to cool a bit and remove all solids.  If there is a substantial amount of meat on your turkey carcass you can pull that off at this point and save.  Strain broth then strain a second time through a cheesecloth lined strainer.

Broth is cooled in refrigerator to allow fat to rise to the top and solidify.  Scrape the fat off, discard, and store broth in an airtight container if using within the next few days.  If not, freeze.

I ended up with 8 cups of turkey stock.

To turn the stock into a hearty soup I added a turkey thigh that was obviously not being eaten as leftovers

zucchini & yellow squash

 

 and some small pasta shells; because that's what I had at hand.

 Once you have your turkey broth you can add anything you want and create the perfect soup that's just right for you and your family.

 I'm not going to post a formal recipe since this is a throw - together type of soup.  You don't even have to use the broth right away.  Freeze it for another day.

 

Caramel Maple Leaf Cupcake Toppers

I had to make some cupcakes with a Fall theme recently so I made maple cupcakes with a maple buttercream frosting.

These are what I liked most about them.

Each little maple leaf started out as a square of Brach's caramel.  I put a caramel in the microwave for about 3-5 seconds (test with your own microwave's power).  You definitely don't want them to melt.  They should be softened just enough to make them more pliable to roll out.




Roll a caramel out between 2 pieces of wax paper.

Unless you work really, really fast I would suggest softening up and rolling out one caramel at a time.

 

With a small leaf-shaped canapé cutter press your leaf shape out.  Make each vein indention with the back of a paring knife.

When finished, gently place a caramel leaf on top of each cupcake

Chocolate Cream Pie

Grandchildren are such gifts.  Ours live very far away from us so when they visit it is such a treat.  The Thanksgiving holiday found me thankful for getting to spend some time with them.

One of my highlights was making a chocolate cream pie for the best son-in-law in the world.  And what made it even better was that Miss Muffet helped!

She was the perfect assistant.

She really whipped the butter and chocolate into the hot custard!

Once the custard cooled to room temperature she spread it in the pre-baked pie crust.

After a couple of hours chilling in the 'fridge she topped it with whipped cream and finished it off with some grated chocolate.

Voila!

In my opinion the best recipe for chocolate cream pie recipe comes from one of my favorite dessert cookbooks Classic Home Desserts by the late Richard Sax.  Lutz Olkewicz's Chocolate Cream Pie became a legendary favorite in the The Cape Cod Room in Chicago's Drake Hotel.


It's dark, dense and rich.  R-I-C-H

Chocolate Cream Pie
Adapted from  Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Serves 8

Ingredients:
dough for a 1-crust pie *see note
2 cups milk, divided
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
10 ounces semisweet chocolate (such as Scharffen Berger)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy cream

Mise en place:

• pre-bake a pie crust in a 9" pie plate
• chop chocolate
• cut butter in pieces and keep in refrigerator until ready for use
• measure out milk (divided), cream, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla
• crack eggs into a small mixing bowl

Note:  Use your preferred recipe for pie crust.  For convenience sake during the holidays, I use the refrigerated Pillsbury crust that you simply unroll.  It's easy and makes for a very nice crust when you do not have time to make a dough from scratch.


Method:
Scald 1-1/2 cups of the milk and all of the cream in a heavy nonreactive saucepan over medium heat.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the sugar, eggs and cornstarch until smooth.  Add a little of the hot milk mixture to the bowl, and whisk well.  Repeat with more hot milk. until the egg mixture has tempered.  Return the warmed mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking.  Boil, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and add the chocolate, butter and 1 tsp of the vanilla.  Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth.  Strain the custard into a clean bowl.  Place a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard to prevent a "skin" from forming, and refrigerate until cooled to room temperature.

With a spatula give the chocolate mixture a good mixing and pour the cooled custard into the cooled pie shell.  Loosely cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Whip the 3/4 cup whipping cream with the remaining  1/2 tsp. vanilla until nearly stiff.  Spread it over the pie with a spatula, swirling attractively.  Finely grate chocolate over the top.  Chill before serving.

Thanksgiving Summary

I've been busy and lax about posting since October.  Thanksgiving dinner this year was a small yet nice gathering of family.  We had the regular dishes that grace our Thanksgiving table but I did play around with a couple of things.

We tried an organic heirloom turkey this year.  It had the prettiest complexion!

I tried a new seasoning/cooking method from my norm.  Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table posted a rub that sounded interesting so I tried it.  Yes, it looks like someone got sick all over my turkey.  At Lynne's suggestion, I tried it breast side down for the first portion of roasting.

The results were fine and the seasoning made for a very interesting gravy (translated: it was really good but Lovey likes the old fashioned regular gravy I make better).

 

 

 

Made some pastry cut-outs to decorate the crust of the pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin pie recipe is straight off the Libby's label.  I go back to it every time.  Can't beat the good old recipe.

I strayed from the normal pecan pie and made a bourbon pecan pie (post to follow).


Rounded off the dinner with mashed potatoes, dressing and green beans.  Christanne  brought a great sweet potato dish.  I will say that sweet potatoes combined with goat cheese and pistachios make for a very tasty side dish (will see if I can get her to post the recipe).  I believe it was her dad's favorite way he's had sweet potatoes.

Although the food seems to edge it's way to the forefront of Thanksgiving, it's really about who you spend it with isn't it?  I was blessed this year to be able to spend time with daughters, grand kids and in-laws.  There was still al ot of family I didn't get to spend time with but they were in my heart just the same.

Cod Baked in a Yogurt Sauce

It has taken me several weeks to get off high center about I Heart Cooking Clubs' selection for chef and cookbook author being highlighted for the next 6 months.  Quite frankly I am not a big fan of Indian cuisine.  Chalk that up to eating a lot of really bad Indian food in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  Some has been disgusting and other, though it may taste OK, has been extremely visually unappealing. 

But....if I really want to learn something about Indian cooking Madhur Jaffrey is the one person I would want to learn from; like gravitating to Marcella Hazan for Italian, Rick Bayless for Mexican or Julia Child for French.

So, off the couch I come to cook outside my normal realm of comfort.  This week's theme is yogurt and I selected a fish dish baked in a yogurt sauce; a recipe from Indian Cooking.

Everything was easily combined in a baking dish, covered and baked.

sliced onions

fish - I used cod instead of the suggested haddock.  Halibut was another suggestion that would work here.



Topped off with a yogurt sauce flavored with ginger, cumin and coriander.  The sauce was a little bland but only due to the fact that I left out the cayenne and garam masala (which is a blend of cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, cloves, peppercorns and nutmeg).

The fish turned out delightfully light and healthy.  We served it with brown rice and sliced tomatoes.  The recipe halved well and surprised me as being the first Indian food that I actually liked.  Lovey was too!  But I didn't tell him what I was making him until he ate it.
Let's go see what they have for us to do next week (now that I have my feet wet).


Cod Baked in a Yogurt Sauce or Dahi wali macchi
Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking (as Haddock Baked in a Yogurt Sauce)
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
2 medium onion, peeled
2 pounds (900 g) 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick fresh cod fillets (or haddock or halibut)
2 cups (450 ml) plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/2  to 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp peeled, finely grated fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 Tbsp unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces


Mise en place:

• rinse and dry fish fillets; cut the fillets into 3 inch (7.5 cm) pieces and set aside to dry
• slice onions 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick slices and line a large baking dish with them.
• place the dried, cut fillets onto the onions in a single layer
• pour yogurt into small mixing bowl
• squeeze lemon juice and grate the ginger and add to yogurt
• measure out the spices and add to yogurt
• measure vegetable oil and add to yogurt mixture
• cut cold butter in small pieces and hold in the refrigerator until ready to use

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350°F /190°C
With a whisk mix the yogurt mixture and pour over the fish, making sure some of the sauce goes under the pieces of fish.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the upper third of the oven for 30 minutes or until the fish is just done.

Remove fish to a plate and keep covered in warm oven.  Meanwhile, pour all of the liquids from the baking dish into a small saucepan.  It will seem very thin and separated.  Bring the sauce to a boil and boil rapidly until there is about 1-1/2 cups (350 ml) of the sauce left, about 5 minutes  Take the saucepan off the heat.  Put in the cold butter and beat in with a fork or small whisk.  As soon as it has melted, pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

NOTE:  you may also serve the dish cold, after it has been refrigerated overnight, with a green salad.

I'm sharing this post at IHCC - go on over and see if there's anything you like

Pecan Squares

Several years ago I was performing some Saturday morning cleaning chores.  Ina Garten was keeping me company in the form of her Barefoot Contessa television show on The Food Network.  When I heard "...pecan bars..." I dropped my cleaning cloth, tripped over my cleaning bucket and found a seat in front of the TV.



I had about 30 pounds of pecan halves in the freezer and I was getting ready to learn how to use 2 of them.

Before I resumed my cleaning I looked through my copy of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook  and bingo....the recipe was in there.  I have been making her recipe ever since.

Beware...it's a fattening recipe, it is an expensive recipe; you want to invest in a good quality unsweetened butter and pecans are expensive these days (in Texas anyway).  Another important item to invest in is a good quality, professional half sheet baking pan (about 18" x 12" x 1").

It all begins with a shortbread crust

With so much butter, I cut mine up a little to begin the creaming process

Once the butter and sugar are nice and creamy add the eggs and vanilla

After you incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) you have this fluffy blob.

The shortbread dough will be sticky as you press into the pan.  Use a little flour on your hands and the dough.  Try to make a nice edge up the sides of the pan as well as making the bottom fairly thin.  You will need all the room you can muster up for the filling.

While the shortbread cools you can create magic with this stuff.

Place everything but the cream and pecans into a large, heavy saucepan.

Butter, honey, brown sugar, and citrus zest, boiling into that which will coat my arteries bind the pecans together; nom-nom-nom-nom-nom.

 After boiling for 3 minutes, remove the filling from the heat and stir in the cream. Don't overcook the filling.  You don't want it to get to a hard candy stage.

Then fold in the nuts

Pour your filling into the cooled shortbread crust.  Hopefully the nice edges you made will keep as much of the filling as possible from seeping underneath the crust.

It is a given that this will boil over so I would suggest to cover the lower rack in the oven with foil to catch the drips.

Bake until set, allow to cool and feel happy knowing that

this

plus

this

equals

this

Notes and  Comments: 

Baking sheet - for this whole recipe, please go out and purchase a half sheet professional baking sheet.  It is definitely deeper and a little wider than the normal jelly roll pan you may have in your cabinet.  Don't ask me why I know this is important; it was not a pretty sight.  On the other hand, the recipe does half well to use a smaller pan.

It looks like Ina Garten cuts her bars into 2" x 3" pieces.  I don't have a super sweet tooth and these are so rich that this size is way too large for me.  I cut them half that size.

Be sure your honey is of good quality, 100% raw and not a 'honey blend'.

Pecan Squares

From Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Makes 20 squares

For the Shortbread Crust

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

1-1/4 pounds unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 extra large eggs

3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mise en place:

• set butter on counter to reach room temperature
• measure sugar
• crack 3 eggs in a small bowl
• measure vanilla
• measure and combine flour, baking powder and salt into bowl and sift together

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

For the crust, beast the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, until light, approximately 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix well.  Mix the dry ingredients into the batter with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Press the dough evenly into an ungreased 18 by 12 by 1-inch baking sheet, making an edge around the outside.  It will be very sticky; sprinkle the dough and your hands lightly with flour.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned.  Allow to cool.

For the Filling

Ingredients:

1 pound unsalted butter

1 cup good honey

3 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp grated orange zest

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 pounds pecans, coarsely chopped

Mise en place:

• Place butter in large saucepan
• measure out honey and place in pan
• measure out brown sugar and add to pan
• zest the lemon and the orange and add to pan
• measure cream and set aside
• roughly chop pecans and set aside

Method:

Melt contents of saucepan over low heat until everything is melded, using a wooden spoon to stir.  Raise the heat and boil for 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat.  Stir in the cream and pecans.  Pour  over the crust, trying not to get the filling between the crust and the pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is set.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.  Cut into bars and serve.

If you want to be fancy and wrap individual bars for a gift you can dip one end of each bar in melted chocolate for a nice presentation.