Mary Berry's Pecan Pie

As discussed on my previous post, during the next few weeks I am going to let the Great British Bake-off inspire me to do some Great Maltese Baking. I'm more of a savoury chef myself, and the majority of recipes I plan to try out over the next few weekends will be savoury bakes that I've never attempted before. However, for my first bake, I've decided to go less savoury and more Mary Berry, simply because she is the ultimate inspiration for any newbie baker. Add to that the fact that I heart heart *HEART* pecan pie and this weekend's recipe was born. Actually, it was taken directly from the great baker herself.

Following a great night out with the workmates, not to mention another culinary delight at A Wong, a fantastic Chinese restaurant near Westminster, I was feeling slight worse for wear. But we had guests round for the first football match of the season and some exceptional burgers to BBQ, so I finally perked up and headed over to Asda to buy all the ingredients recommended in this fantastic recipe.

First things first. I am utterly shocked at the price of pecans in this country: £2.50 for a rather desultory small pack, which left me concerned there wouldn't be enough for the recipe, so I bought two. I spent a good fifteen minutes meandering the various food cupboard aisles at Asda, simply because I know for a fact that in the multiple world foods sections, they will sell items like peanuts and coconut milk for at least a third less than the price of the baking, nuts and Thai aisles. Apparently pecans are not a world food though, and my luck had run out.

I purchased the rest of the ingredients (so much golden syrup) and headed home to try this recipe out. I had a bit of a confusing moment when making the pastry to be honest. It's a very similar recipe: mix flour with cold butter and a small amount of icing sugar in a blender, before adding an egg yolk and tablespoon of cold water. I am so used to making all my doughs in the main component of my Kenwood that I spent a good ten minutes staring at the different mixer types and trying to decide whether I should use the K-beater or the dough hook. Luckily I soon pulled myself together and realised that none of that would work - since you initially want to combine the flour and butter to obtain a breadcrumb texture, you actually need to use a blender!! Duh...should have read the recipe more carefully.

Finally found my blender!!

So eventually I figured out all the instructions, and I have to say that I am so impressed by the ease at which one can make a sweet pastry. The combination of flour and butter to make a bread crumb texture was simplicity itself, and I was fascinated how the mere addition of an egg yolk and water could so quickly combine to make a soft pastry.

Ok, hard part over, or so I thought. After watching Mary B for so long on TV, I know fine well that one doesn't want to handle pastry too much, because it warms it up. I gave it a quick knead and rolled it out, but was shocked by how easily it fell apart while trying to lift it into my tart tin. And yes, anyone looking at the pictures with the slightest bit of common sense will know that's not a tart tin, because I don't own one! A cake tin damn well had to do!! But I eventually made it through my ordeal, got the pastry into the tin and did a bit of shaping slash moulding to make it look vaguely even, then popped it into the fridge to get cold again before sticking it into the oven.

A neatly rolled out pastry case

The best alternative to baking beans....black eyed beans

I was very nervous about the whole blind baking thing. I think I get why it's called that - once you've got the baking paper covering the pastry, you can't really see what colour it's going. However, I was more nervous about using the wrong 'weighing down' ingredients - obviously I don't own baking beans but was slightly worried if I weighed it down with pasta the whole thing would go awry! Luckily I sourced some dried black eyed beans at the back of the cupboard that did the job perfectly and, frankly, I am no longer intimidated by the whole baking blind thing. The pastry came out a treat!! No soggy bottoms in this pie!!

Not a soggy bottom in sight!

So, onto the filling itself. Although I love golden syrup, I hate working with the stuff. It's so sticky that it puts me off, and the addition of black treacle didn't help! I didn't have any orange to go into it, so put a couple of tablespoons of apple & mango juice instead of the orange juice. I also didn't think Mary's recipe had enough pecans in, so I finely chopped a small amount of pecans and tossed them into the mixture. Happily, once I'd poured the mixture into the cooling pie pastry and topped with more pecans, it looks like a slightly deeper version of Mary's recipe. Hurrah.

A sticky mess!

Pre-oven

Here's a tip for those of you trying out this recipe though. If you plan to follow my foolhardy ways and make a deep dish pie, rather than the recommended tart, lower the oven to about 150 degrees fan while cooking it, and it will need at least 45 minutes in there to set. At least that was my experience...

45 minutes in the oven later

Regardless, it came out beautifully in the end.  We've had a couple of slices each already so far, and it's a lovely sweet and gooey pie. The pastry is delightful and super crisp, and the flavours delicious. Next time though, I might invest in a pie dish, as the filling is just that...super filling!

The final masterpiece. Mary B would be proud!!!