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Pecan pie

TimeActive work time: 20 minutes Total preparation time: 1 hour plus 2 1/2 hours chilling
YieldsServes 8
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When I was growing up in Connecticut, pecans were not on my radar. Maybe I’d tasted pecan pie, and if I did, I surely loved it; when you’re young it’s difficult not to like anything as sweet as pecan pie. But I have no vivid food memories from my youth of anything regarding that nut. Then, when I was 19, I moved to Texas. My pecan life began.

In Austin, everyone seemed to have a pecan tree (and a fig tree too, another wonderful food I discovered in Texas). Friends would come by with big brown paper bags full of pecans, some with thick shells and others the thin-skinned variety, and you’d set them out in bowls and idly shell them while you visited.

The harder the shell and the more difficult it was to pick out the meat, the sweeter the nut. I learned how to crack nuts against each other, putting one on the heel of my hand and closing the other against it in my fist. I learned the term “blower,” a nutshell without a nut inside.

Not eating all the sweet, chewy nuts as we shelled them was challenging, but it was worth it to put aside enough to make a pecan pie.

I worked through many pecan pie recipes before settling on the one I now use. I never vary it--it’s just so good. It’s a far cry from the traditional Southern pecan pie, mainly because it’s about half as sweet--there’s no Karo syrup. While still very sweet, it isn’t cloying--and that’s the problem with most pecan pies. The sugar and syrup overpower the natural sweetness in the nuts. I use honey for my pie because I think it complements the nuttiness of the pecans so nicely, as long as the honey is a mild one, such as clover or acacia.

The rest is pretty simple: butter, eggs, a little nutmeg, vanilla and rum (Southerners might prefer Bourbon). When it bakes, it puffs up like a souffle, then settles when it leaves the oven. I use a traditional French pastry, sweetened with a little sugar; but if you want to use a more traditional American flaky pastry, you could.

When I moved from Texas to Paris, I took many ingredients along--baking powder and baking soda, Mexican spices and chiles, black beans and Masa Harina and pecans. After every trip back to the United States, I would return to Europe with pecans in my suitcase (and black beans and corn tortillas, but that’s another story).

And every year at Thanksgiving ( le Fanksgeeving , Art Buchwald calls le jour du merci donnant in his famous column run every year in the International Herald Tribune), I would use them up, in pies, which the French adored, in “pucker-up cranberry relish,” in wild rice and pecan salad, in turkey dressing.

I do wonder sometimes why I seem to focus on pecans only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s a great nut at any time of year. Leaving Paris did have its compensations, and having pecans in my freezer year-round is definitely one of them.

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Martha Rose Shulman is author of “The Best Vegetarian Recipes.”

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Crust

1

Mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter. Gradually add the water, until the dough comes together (this can be done in a food processor). Gently press the dough into a ball, then flatten it in a disk. Wrap it in plastic and chill 30 minutes.

2

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and line a 9-inch pie pan or tart pan. Pinch an attractive lip around the edge. Cover the crust with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Assembly

1

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2

Cream the butter and honey. Add the eggs, vanilla, rum, nutmeg and salt; mix together well.

3

Bake the pie crust for 5 minutes. Remove it from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Spread the pecans over the crust in an even layer. Pour in the butter and egg mixture, scraping all of it into the crust.

4

Bake the pie until the nuts are lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. The filling will puff up, then settle. Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool on a rack. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.