At 9:40 Wednesday night the pecan pie bubbled over onto the floor of the oven, the smoke alarm in the hallway went off, and Waylon, who is at least half coonhound, answered it. For about a minute our house sounded like a fox hunt. Ryan propped the back door open, Nora fanned the alarm with a dish towel, and I stood at the stove holding a pie that had lost maybe a quarter cup of filling to a black, smoking puddle.
The pie was fine. That was the only real disaster of pie week, and it taught me the one rule I'm putting at the top of next year's list: pecan pie goes on a sheet pan. Every time. Four pies for sixteen people, one oven, two days. Here's how it actually went.
The schedule
One oven is enough only because Ryan smoked the turkey outside on the pellet grill, which left the kitchen to me. I wrote the plan on an index card and taped it to the cabinet.
- Sunday: made all the crust dough at once, four disks, wrapped and chilled.
- Tuesday morning: rolled two crusts. Blind-baked the shell for Jack's chocolate pie. Baked the pumpkin pie, which keeps fine in the fridge for two days and slices cleaner cold.
- Tuesday afternoon: cooked the chocolate filling, poured it into the baked shell, pressed plastic wrap on the surface and chilled it overnight.
- Wednesday: rolled the last two crusts. Chess pie first at 325°F, then pecan at 350°F. You know how the pecan went.
- Thursday: whipped cream and nothing else. The oven belonged to the casseroles.
The crust I make in bulk
Making four crusts at once means one floury counter instead of four. I use cold butter for flavor and a little lard for tenderness, the way Granny June did, and very cold water. The why is the same as with biscuits: small flat pieces of cold fat stay solid in the dough, and in a hot oven the water in them turns to steam and pushes the layers of dough apart. That's flaky. If the butter melts in warm hands before the crust bakes, you get something closer to a cracker.
Ingredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, in 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/2 cup cold lard or vegetable shortening, in small pieces
- About 1 cup ice water
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Makes four single 9-inch crusts.
How I make it
- Whisk the flour, salt and sugar in your biggest bowl. Add the butter and lard and work them in with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the pieces range from peas to small lima beans.
- Stir the vinegar into the ice water. Drizzle in about 3/4 cup, tossing with a fork, then add more a tablespoon at a time until a handful holds together when you squeeze it.
- Divide into four equal pieces (I weigh them), press each into a flat disk, wrap tightly and chill at least 2 hours. The disks keep 3 days in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer.
- Roll each disk to a 12-inch circle, ease it into a 9-inch pie plate without stretching it, crimp the edge and freeze 15 minutes before filling or baking.
- To blind-bake, line the crust with foil, fill it with dried beans and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. Lift out the foil and beans and bake 8 to 12 minutes more, until the bottom looks dry and golden.
The four fillings, briefly
Pecan: 3 eggs, 1 cup dark corn syrup, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 4 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla, a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 cups toasted pecans. Bake at 350°F for 55 to 60 minutes, until the center is puffed and only barely jiggles. On a sheet pan.
Chess: Granny's 1974 card, the one I wrote about at Easter. 325°F for 50 to 55 minutes, pulled while the center still wobbles. Smooth top, no cracks, second time in a row.
Pumpkin: a 15-ounce can of pumpkin, a 12-ounce can of evaporated milk, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. 425°F for 15 minutes, then 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes more, until a knife an inch from the center comes out clean.
Chocolate, for Jack: a stovetop custard of sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, egg yolks and whole milk, cooked until it bubbles thick, then finished with butter and vanilla. It goes into the blind-baked shell and chills at least 6 hours. Whipped cream on top, no meringue, at the request of the eight-year-old.
If you'd rather not use lard, all shortening works for that half cup, or use all butter and accept a slightly less tender crust.
What dessert cost
All four pies plus two pints of cream for whipping came to about $34, and the pecans were the biggest single line on the receipt. That's a little over $2 a person for sixteen, with enough left for pie at breakfast on Friday, which is a Callahan tradition I won't be defending here. Jack had chocolate pie for breakfast and rated the whole week a ten.
