Brown Butter & Bourbon Pecan Pie
The ultimate homemade pecan pie that's perfect for Thanksgiving! There's a flaky pie crust, a rich brown butter & bourbon custardy filling & plenty of toasted pecans.
Servings: 8 People
Equipment
- 9" Pie Dish
- Mixing Bowls
- Medium Saucepan
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 1 9" Pie Crust (Homemade - See Notes)
- 1 Egg Yolk (For Par Baking)
Toasted Pecans
- 200 g Pecan Halves
Pecan Pie Filling
- 250 g Golden Syrup
- 200 g Dark Brown Sugar
- ½ tsp Fine Sea Salt
- ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 140 g Unsalted Butter
- 3 Large Eggs (Room Temperature - See Notes)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Paste
- Zest Of 1 Lemon
- ½ tsbp Lemon Juice
- 2 tbsp Bourbon (See Notes)
- 100 g Pecan Halves (Untoasted, For The Top - See Notes)
Instructions
Pie Crust
- Make your pie crust following this recipe up to the point that it's been used to line a 9" pie dish, the edges have been crimped & it has been chilled for at least 2 hours. The base should be docked with a fork.
Toasted Pecans
- Preheat an oven to 200°c/180°c fan (392°f/356°f).
- Place the pecan halves onto a baking tray then bake in the preheated oven for 4-6 minutes until toasted & fragrant. Set to one side & leave to cool.Keep the oven on as we'll be par baking the pie crust at the same temperature.
Par Baking The Pie Crust
- Place a metal baking tray into the oven then leave to heat up for at least 10 minutes. We'll be baking the pie crust on top of the tray, so that the base cooks properly.Make sure to give your oven & the tray plenty of time to fully saturate with heat. This is key to baking a crisp, flaky pie crust!
- Next, take a large piece of baking parchment, scrunch it up then place inside your pie crust. Fill the crust with baking beans (or uncooked rice) then place the pie dish onto the tray that's in the oven.
- Bake the pie crust for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are set & starting to turn a light golden brown.
- Carefully lift the parchment & beans out of the pie crust then place back into the oven & cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the inside looks dry & is a light golden brown.Make sure to have a large dish/tray handy, that you can place the hot baking beans into to cool down.
- Once cooked, take the pie crust out of the oven, let it cool slightly then brush the bottom with a light coating of egg yolk, to seal up the holes from when we docked it. Set the pie crust aside to cool slightly whilst we make the filling.Make sure to let the pastry cool for a minute or two, otherwise the yolk will cook! We just want it to set. Keep the pie dish on the baking tray, as it will be easier to transfer the pie into the oven once we've added in the filling.
Pecan Pie Filling
- Turn the oven down to 175°c/155°c fan (347°f/311°f).
- Place the golden syrup, brown sugar, salt & cinnamon into a large mixing bowl then set to one side.
- Next, brown the butter. To do this, chop the butter into evenly sized pieces then place into a medium saucepan. Place over a medium heat & allow to melt, stirring regularly with a spatula. Keep cooking, until the butter starts to foam, smells nutty & you can see that the milk solids in the bottom of the pan have turned golden brown.
- As soon as the brown butter is ready, tip it into the bowl with the sugar & golden syrup in then whisk by hand, to combine. Let the mix cool for a couple of minutes.
- In the meantime, roughly chop up the toasted pecans then place into the par baked pie crust. Don't make the pecans too small, we want them to be quite chunky!
- Next, whisk the eggs into the butter & sugar mix, one at a time then whisk in the vanilla, lemon zest & juice & the bourbon.
- Pour the filling over the toasted pecans in the pie crust then arrange the untoasted pecan halves on top in your desired pattern. Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 55 minutes - 1 hour, until the filling is set with a very slight wobble.If the pecans start to brown too much, loosely cover the pie with foil.
- Once cooked, let the pie cool then chill in the fridge overnight. To serve, cut into portions then allow to warm up to room temperature.
Notes
1. Baking In An Aga - To cook a pecan pie in an Aga, blind bake the pie crust on a grid shelf placed onto the floor of the roasting oven. Brown the butter for the filling on the boiling plate then bake the pecan pie on a grid shelf placed onto the floor of the baking oven. Slide a cold plain shelf onto the top set of runners just before baking the pie, leaving it in for the duration of the cook.
2. Pecans - You'll need pecan halves for this pie! We're toasting some of the pecans then chopping them up for the filling. The rest should be the neatest/most uniform pecan halves, which we'll be using to top the pie with. We're not toasting these pecans as they'll toast in the oven as the pie bakes.
3. Golden Syrup - Tate & Lyle golden syrup works best for this pecan pie! This is available in most supermarkets in the UK or online for other countries. You'll get the best flavour with golden syrup but corn syrup will work as well.
4. Bourbon - A good quality bourbon whiskey works best for the filling but rum will work as well. You can also leave the bourbon out of the filling if you'd prefer.
5. Eggs - Make sure to use large eggs for the filling. Each egg should weigh around 50 grams out of the shell. You'll also need an egg yolk, to brush onto the par baked pie crust when it comes out of the oven, to seal up any holes. Make sure to use room temperature eggs for the filling, as using cold ones can affect the texture of the filling.
6. Pie Crust - For this pecan pie, we're using my flaky single pie crust recipe. This makes the perfect amount of pastry for a 9" pie. You can find the recipe, here.
7. Storage - I find that it's best to store the baked pie in the fridge then bring it back up to room temperature to serve. I'd recommend chilling the pecan pie overnight before serving, so that the filling is completely set & the flavours have had chance to develop. Pecan pie is best eaten within 3 days.