Thanksgiving has come and gone, and ofc I had to get my bake on with some Thanksgiving bakes. First up, you always need some bread and butter with turkey day dinner, so I made an overnight white.
I also made both a sandwich loaf (plain white bread) and cornbread to use in stuffing. My wife had seen this recipe in the NY Times and thought it looked good, and it was. I made an extra cornbread while I was at it, and I actually didn’t think it was that great when I tasted it. Ironically, probably because I made it from scratch using cornmeal, and not a box mix that would have lots of extra sugar and stuff. The stuffing itself was great though and will probably be our new go-to in years to come.
And of course, the pièce de résistance, it’s not Thanksgiving bakes without the pies! I made my two favorites, the obligatory pumpkin, and a bourbon pecan.
When my wife requested Banana Cream Pie for Pi Day, I was dubious. I didn’t really know what it was. Sure I’ve heard of it, When but I don’t think I’d ever actually had it. And, banana.. pie.. it just sounds weird. After making this pie, I was sold.
Look at that banana cream pie!
Making the Pie
For the actual pie recipe, I turned to one of my go-to’s and basically followed Sally’s recipe. The only real differences you can pretty clearly see. I didn’t cover the whole top with banana slices. I decided to brûlée some bananas for decoration and just add a few plain slices.
When I went to torch the bananas I discovered my kitchen torch wasn’t working. Luckily I had a torch lighter, and made it work, although it was a pain. Basically had to do 1 slice, and then let the lighter cool down for a few minutes before doing the next one. (I’ve bought a new torch) I also melted some chocolate and made chocolate twirls, which were a really nice effect in real life but don’t come through great in the photos because they are so dark. I also spent a long time piping stars on the whole top of the pie, with homemade whipped cream.
Banana Cream Pie Ready to Cut
In the above photo you can see a few of my baking related Christmas presents in use, I believe for the first time. I asked for a nice cake service set, and some nice flour sack towels. I just said ‘something that will look good in photos’ and she picked out this awesome set from Inox Artisans that I really like. The towels come from an etsy store called Fiber & Mud and are are hand-dyed indigo.
I swear I took pictures of the pie cut, and of a slice, but for the life of me I can’t find any. The pie was actually eaten, you just have to take my word for it. And it was good. Here’s another picture of the whole pie instead.
Pecan Pie! The world might be going crazy, but Pi day is Pi day, so of course I had to bake a pie. I’m actually not normally a huge sweet pie fan, but I am a big savory pie fan. Either way, somehow I haven’t posted a pie before. The closest I probably came was the chocolate chip cookie cheesecake that was pretty pie like. Anyway, it was Pi Day, and I had some pecans at home, (which ironically I had bought by accident), so I decided to make a pecan pie.
I was torn between two recipes. Mary Berry’s recipe from her baking bible, and Sally’s Baking Addiction ‘srecipe. In the end I decided to go with Mary Berry’s because I liked that it used maple syrup instead of corn syrup (which, to be fair, Sally also suggests as an alternative).
First I mixed up a dough. Mary’s recipe includes a short crust recipe to use, so I made that first..
Mary Berry’s Rich Shortcrust Pastry
Mary Berry's shortcrust pastry crust.
175 g Plain Flour
15 g Confectioner's Sugar
75 g Butter (Unsalted, diced)
1 large Egg Yolk
1 tbsp Cold Water (More if needed)
Add sugar and flour to a large bowl and work in the butter until the mix resembles a breadcrumb consistency.
Add the yolk and water and mix until everything comes together as a firm dough.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Then I made the filling and put it all together…
This is what you want to end up with.
Mary Berry’s Pecan Pie
Mary Berry's pecan pie recipe from her 'Baking Bible' book.
1 Pie Crust (from above) ((or premade if lazy I guess))
25 g Softened Butter
175 g Light Brown Sugar
3 large Eggs
200 ml Maply Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla
150 g Pecan halves ((I actually used chopped))
Preheat oven to 355F.
Assuming home made dough, roll out the dough and line a tart pan. I used a nine inch with removable bottom. The removable bottom ended up being a missed blessing which I'll get to later.
Prick dough all around with a fork. Place parchment on top of the dough and fill with baking beads. Blind Bake for 15 minutes. Remove beans and parchment and bake for 5 more.
In a bowl beat the butter and sugar together. Then add eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla and beat some more.
Fill the pie crust with pecans. If you used halves you can try to arrange them arfully, I used chopped pecans so I just poured them in and distrbuted them as an even layer.
Pour in the filling. This is where the pan was an issue. Remember how you prick a bunch of holes in the dough..? I ended up with a huge mess after filling it. Next time I'd either line the pan with parchment, or be careful about not putting holes in the dough by the seam/joint between the ring and the pan bottom.
Finally, bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling has completely set. I needed the extra 5.
The results were AMAZING. Easily one my own favorites of things I’ve baked. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I love pecan pie anyway.
Crumb shot? Is that still what you call it for a pie?A perfect slice.
