Secrets to the perfect pie for Thanksgiving? Favorites?

[Hisgirl]

The BEST Pecan Pie is made without Karo syrup! It is STUNNING!! The filling is so rich and sets up like you would expect. Everyone who tastes it for the first time, will put down their fork and ask what on earth is this amazing pie!

Once we had this one, we never made any other pecan pie as this was was so noticeably better, wow!


OLD FASHIONED PECAN PIE

1 cup maple syrup

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon molasses

4 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp vanilla

6 large egg YOLKS only , lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups toasted and chopped pecans

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell (see note), chilled in pie plate for 30 minutes

1. MAKE FILLING Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat sugar, syrup, cream, and molasses in saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Whisk butter and salt into syrup mixture until combined. Add a little of the filling to the egg yolks to temper (One spoonful at a time over and over and over until egg mix is brown) and then add all back into the filling. Whisk until incorporated. Add vanilla.

2. BAKE PIE Scatter pecans in pie shell. Carefully pour filling over. Place pie in hot oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until filling is set and center jiggles slightly when pie is gently shaken, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool pie on rack for 1 hour, then refrigerate until set, about 3 hours and up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Well, I don't eat crust anymore, so I just make pumpkin filling.
DS usually buys a Pecan Pie from Costco.
DD doesn't like those, so I might make a cheesecake for her

Cheesecake bites... you can make pumpkin cheesecake... or plain and have a bunch of toppings.

 

[MimitoAlex]

While I normally don't bake from scratch pie crust... My granny could make them amazing... they were melt in your mouth, soo soo good! she always said... "Do not over work the dough" It will make it tough... She made what I call a butter dough, light and flaky, just a touch sweet and buttery...

I have worked on trying to duplicate it...and while I have come close, nothing will ever be as good as hers.

 

[dcassetta]

Actually, Key limes are always available at my grocery store and I live thousands of miles from Florida.

Actual Key limes or limes from Mexico pretending to be Key limes?

My three ingredient key lime pie is just 2/3 cup fresh key lime juice, 2 cans condensed milk and 1/2 cup of sour cream, it’s amazing no eggs needed and 10 minutes in the oven heated to 325 degrees. We used to have a tree in our back yard but ants ate it from the inside out . I need to plant another one. When my tree was fruiting I’d squeeze it all and freeze the juice in 2/3 cup batches so I could thaw it just to make a pie. They also made amazing mojitos.

No sour cream, as they had no milk to make it. But, chickens are everywhere in the Keys. That is a great idea about freezing the juice!

 

[lovesmurfs]

While I normally don't bake from scratch pie crust... My granny could make them amazing... they were melt in your mouth, soo soo good! she always said... "Do not over work the dough" It will make it tough... She made what I call a butter dough, light and flaky, just a touch sweet and buttery...

I have worked on trying to duplicate it...and while I have come close, nothing will ever be as good as hers.

Lard or butter helps with the fluffiness. But vodka in the dough helps as well -- it evaporates on baking, leaving space between the layers for flakiness.

 

[NotUrsula]

Actual Key limes or limes from Mexico pretending to be Key limes?


No sour cream, as they had no milk to make it. But, chickens are everywhere in the Keys. That is a great idea about freezing the juice!

This is such an interesting exchange; I knew about the whole "no milk in the Keys" thing in the old days, but it seems so strange; did no one ever think to put a cow (or a goat?) on a boat from Miami? (The Louisiana offshore islands did have cows; though of course a fair number would drown if not moved to the mainland during Aug/September.)

The history of the key lime is really fascinating. They came from Malaysia originally (16th century), and the ones grown in Florida now are a different variety than pre-1926, when the hurricane wiped out all commercial production. Then the one-two punch of Hurricane Andrew and Citrus Greening Disease wiped out the replacements, and they have had to start over yet again. (Anyone in the Keys who has a pre-1926 tree still producing fruit should call UF; they are continually searching for viable seeds that might be resistant to CGD.)

 

[dcassetta]

This is such an interesting exchange; I knew about the whole "no milk in the Keys" thing in the old days, but it seems so strange; did no one ever think to put a cow (or a goat?) on a boat from Miami? (The Louisiana offshore islands did have cows; though of course a fair number would drown if not moved to the mainland during Aug/September.)

I don't know and my grandmother has passed, so I cannot ask her. Not many people lived on Marathon then, and they had no electricity or way of keeping dairy cool. So, perhaps there were just not enough people to justify keeping cows. Perhaps larger population areas like Key West and Key Largo had dairy cows.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Every year I make all our pies from scratch, pumpkin, caramel apple and usually one other kind depending on what I’m in the mood for. One secret I use for my crust is to freeze the butter before hand snd grate it into the flour with a grater, makes an easier and quicker job of incorporating the butter into the flour.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Lard or butter helps with the fluffiness. But vodka in the dough helps as well -- it evaporates on baking, leaving space between the layers for flakiness.

Is it like a shot for the dough and a shot for the baker? LOL

 

[LuvOrlando]

The BEST Pecan Pie is made without Karo syrup! It is STUNNING!! The filling is so rich and sets up like you would expect. Everyone who tastes it for the first time, will put down their fork and ask what on earth is this amazing pie!

Once we had this one, we never made any other pecan pie as this was was so noticeably better, wow!


OLD FASHIONED PECAN PIE

1 cup maple syrup

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon molasses

4 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp vanilla

6 large egg YOLKS only , lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups toasted and chopped pecans

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell (see note), chilled in pie plate for 30 minutes

1. MAKE FILLING Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat sugar, syrup, cream, and molasses in saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Whisk butter and salt into syrup mixture until combined. Add a little of the filling to the egg yolks to temper (One spoonful at a time over and over and over until egg mix is brown) and then add all back into the filling. Whisk until incorporated. Add vanilla.

2. BAKE PIE Scatter pecans in pie shell. Carefully pour filling over. Place pie in hot oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until filling is set and center jiggles slightly when pie is gently shaken, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool pie on rack for 1 hour, then refrigerate until set, about 3 hours and up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Hmmm, good one, I always get terrible migraines from corn syrup so skipping it could be an excellent idea!

 

[NotUrsula]

My pecan pie recipe also uses brown sugar instead of corn syrup, but there's no maple or molasses in it. It tastes very much like pralines; oceans of butter.

 

[CallieMar]

Stella Parks’ pie dough is pretty foolproof to me. I use the King Arthur Flour recipe for pumpkin pie filling. The secret is a pinch of ground black pepper and refrigerate the raw filling overnight.

 

[BayouQueen]

We are a no-nut family as my son-in-law and the resident 7year old are both allergic. I would HAPPILY make a no-pecan pie, but it's too sweet for everyone but me, and all those calories are the last thing I need!

I make killer pie crust- everyone says so, it's not just me bragging! I'm not sure what we'll have for Thanksgiving dessert this year, but usually we do pumpkin (homemade but with canned pumpkin- NOT canned pumpkin pie filling), something with berries (I'm thinking maybe a wild blueberry galette), and apple crisp (or pie). Often we throw in a lemon meringue or lime meringue (green, NOT key lime pie which I think tastes like ), and there will be ice cream and whipped cream to go with everything. Yeah, it's a lot of dessert. I grew up in a family where we'd make whatever each person wanted. Now THAT was a lot of dessert!

Leebee, would you mind sharing your crust recipe? I have good technique down, but not sure I have the perfect ingredient formula. Mine uses half butter and half shortening, and it is good, but I know some people add a touch of vinegar or other things. I'd love to hear what you put in yours!

 

[NYCgrrl]

What are your favorite pies and desserts for the Thanksgiving table?

We love pecan pie and pumpkin pie, last year we made Sally's Baking Addiction Pumpkin Pie and it was so yum, she has her own spice blend recipe.

This year I'm thinking homemade pumpkin pie again and a pecan pie but am not 100% all in on the choices yet so I figured I'd see what other people serve. I can never get the crust quite right so hints are always welcome, at some point I'll get it right I hope.

It’s so difficult to buy/make a pie with a flaky crust that many people seem to just dive into the filling and forego the carbs. My Nana and Grandmother would be appalled at my lack of skills on that level and I’d be ashamed to serve any to them. That being said I rarely make American style pies anymore and just hide my ineptitude by concocting French style tarts, galettes and torts. Amazing, the pretties you can put together using frozen puff pastry (Dufour’s is yer friend if you can find it) and opting for a freshly made filling instead of store bought commercially canned fruit filling (way too much sugar). Nothing wrong with a kuchen either especially topped with thinly sliced apples. My current fav baking are ginger gold, any of the Japanese varieties and Granny Smiths.

 

[dazedx3]

As far as frozen store bought crusts go. Aldi’s has very good ones. They seem to only be available around holidays. This year I am making pumpkin pie and apple cake.

 

[dcassetta]

My current fav baking are ginger gold, any of the Japanese varieties and Granny Smiths.

It's interesting to see the different apples people use. I always use Honeycrisp, and find Granny Smith's too tart for pie.

 

[tasha99]

I usually make Rose Levy Beranbaum's frozen pecan tart for Thanksgiving because it's served frozen, so I can make it ahead. Plus, it's thin, and I hate too much pecan filling goo (plus, thin and frozen, so not a lot of it, and I prefer the texture). It's made with Lyle's Golden Syrup.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/10/23/recipe-frozen-pecan-tart/

It's in her Baking Bible cookbook, which also includes by weight measurements (which I use--I can't actually vouch for the mercury news version since it's by volume).

I usually make a cherry pie using her recipe as well. The tricks for that one are frozen sour cherries instead of canned pie filling, and using tart cherry juice concentrate like they sell at health food stores instead of lemon. I'm not making one this year though, because my farm stand sold out of their sour cherries early and I was too slow.

 

[1420Elexismc]

I love pumpkin, sweet potato, and dutch apple pies

Normally the only pie at the holidays my family does is a traditional apple made by my sister in law...it's perfectly fine-just not my favorite, but nobody but me would eat the others-so not worth making one of them if I'm the only one eating it lol

 

[Lord Manhammer]

When I lived in Poland last year, I made a friend by bringing him 2 cans of Libby's canned pumpkin (he's also an American) so he could make authentic pumpkin pie for his girlfriend on Thanksgiving. Canned pumpkin (and brown sugar also) just aren't readily available over there.

 

[_19disnA]

It's interesting to see the different apples people use. I always use Honeycrisp, and find Granny Smith's too tart for pie.

For apple pie, I get the best results when using 2 different types of apples. You want one type that tends to cook down during baking which makes the sauce. You want a different type that holds it shape so you don't end up with applesauce instead of apple pie. Using both Honeycrisp & Granny Smith together make a great combination for apple pie. There are various other pairings that also work depending on the type of apples that might be available locally.