Honey Crunch Pecan Pie

With the Holidays nearing, I wanted to share this with you. This is a recipe I found some years ago (I have mentioned it last Holiday, but have never blogged about it yet), it's the first and only pecan pie I've only made and it's become a tradition in my home to bake for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The pecan pie lovers in the family all loved it, and raved about it, saying it wasn't as sickly sweet as other's they've had. Since I love Dorie's pie crust recipes, I use hers for this pie.

*You can vote for this Honey Crunch Pecan Pie in the Bon Appétit Blog Envy Bake-Off! Please please please, vote for my Honey Crunch Pecan Pie HERE! -you'll need to click "vote on the next batch" to get to the pie category to vote for me-

Honey Crunch Pecan Pie
-recipe found and adapted from here

One 9-inch pie crust, unbaked, kept cold until ready to use (Dorie's recipe below)

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarsley chopped pecans

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 cups coarsley chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

To Make Filling: In a large bowl, combine eggs, 1/4 cup brown sugar, white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, corn syrup, melted butter, vanilla extract, and chopped pecans. Mix well. Spoon mixture into unbaked pie shell.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove and cover edges of pie crust with aluminum foil. Return to oven for 20 minutes.

To Make Topping: Combine 1/3 cup brown sugar, butter or margarine, and honey in a medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves - about 2 minutes. Add pecans. Stir just until coated. Spoon topping evenly over pie.
Keep foil on edges of pastry and return pie to oven for an additional 10 to 20 minutes, until topping is bubbly and golden brown. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough
-reprinted with permission from Dorie Greenspan, Baking From My Home to Yours
makes one 9-inch crust

1 1/2 cups all·purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 1/2 tablespoons very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces
About 1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don't overdo the mixing—what you're aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 3 tablespoons of water—all a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the work bowl and onto a work surface.

Gather the dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling. (If your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.)

To Roll Out the Dough: Have a buttered 9-inch pie plate at hand. You can roll the dough out on a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. (I usually roll this dough out on the floured counter.) If you're working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to lift the paper, plastic or cover frequently so that it doesn't roll into the dough and form creases. If you've got time, slide the rolled-out dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up.

To Make the Crust: Fit the dough into the pie plate and, using a pair of scissors, but the excess dough to a 1/4- to 1/2 inch overhang. Fold the dough under itself, so that it hangs over the edge just a tad, and flute or pinch the crust to make a decorative edge. Alternatively, you can finish the crust by pressing it with the tines of a fork.

*Proceed with Honey Crunch Pecan Pie recipe above.

enjoy,