Orange Pecan Pie(or Tart)

I found a great recipe on Allrecipes for Orange Pecan Pie.  I am always unsure whether a pie should have a top crust as well, so I opted to call mine pie(or tart).  I also made a change to the recipe on that site, since a reviewer seemed to imply the filling didn’t set.  I also decided to make my own pastry cake, rather than use a shop bought one.

I really enjoyed making this, and my pastry case turned out perfectly, with some dough left over for me to use for something else.  My change to the recipe was to only use 180ml of golden syrup, rather than 240 ml.  Also I used golden syrup instead of corn syrup, since I love the flavour and obtaining corn syrup in the UK is quite difficult.

The pie is out of the oven and I can smell the lovely aroma of orange as I sit here typing this blog entry.

I made a huge mistake too, but not related to the baking.  Rather it was on the making of a video to accompany the recipe.  I tested a wireless lavalier microphone and it worked fine.  So I decided to use that.  But as I attached the transmitter to the back of my trousers I must have changed the transmitting channel, so that it no longer matched the channel set on the receiver.  Thus I ended up with a nice video and absolutely no sound.  So for this recipe I will not be posting the video.

The recipe for both the pastry case and the filling are both very simple, so if you like oranges and pecans I urge you to give this a try.

I really enjoyed the taste of the end result and can thoroughly recommend it, a wonderfully crisp and buttery pastry with a lovely orange and pecan filling.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:

• 225g plain flour
• 100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 medium egg (large in USA)
• 1 tablespoon icy cold water

For the filling:

• 180ml golden syrup
• 110g chopped pecans
• 3 medium eggs(in USA large),beaten
• 57g unsalted butter, melted
• 1tbsp orange juice
• zest of two oranges
• 1/2tsp salt

Method:

1. Make the rich sweet shortcrust pastry either by hand or in a food processor. By hand, sift the flour into a bowl, add the diced butter and rub in* until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Beat the egg with the water until combined, then stir into the crumbs with a round-bladed knife to make a slightly soft but not sticky dough. To use a food processor, put the flour and butter into the bowl and blitz until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add the sugar and ‘pulse’ to combine. Mix the egg with the water and, with the machine running, add through the feed tube. Stop the machine as soon as a ball of dough forms. Wrap the dough and chill for 20 minutes until firm but not hard.
2. Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5, and put the baking sheet in to heat up. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured worktop and use to line a 25cm flan tin.  Prick the base of the pastry case well with a fork, then chill for 10 minutes.
3. Line the pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans, then set the tin on the heated baking sheet and bake blind* for about 15 minutes until the pastry is set and the edges are lightly coloured. Remove the paper and beans and return the empty pastry case to the oven to bake for a further 10–12 minutes until the base is cooked through (no damp patches) and turning a light golden colour. Set aside to cool (leave the oven on but reduce to 180c/160c Fan/350F).
4. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and then add the butter,salt and sugar and beat together.
5. Add the orange juice and orange zest and beat to combine.
6. Add the pecans and stir in.
7. Pour the mixture into the cooled pastry case and place in the oven to bake for 45 minutes, until the mixture has set.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least ten minutes before removing from the tin.  Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Serve with some whipped cream, or ice-cream.