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Pecan Pie

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We had a friend visiting from Italy in early October. It was his first trip to the US and of course I was going to cook, but the question became WHAT? There was no way I was going to fix anything Italian for this man. I wanted something truly American. I racked my brain……… There was no way I was going to fry chicken, it’s just too messy and it’s not something I really mastered anyway. There are just too many places to get good fried chicken, so I never make it at home. Then I thought about a big pot of Gumbo but decided that that was too regional. I wanted something that would represent this country as a whole when the idea struck me, Thanksgiving! 

Now this is a meal that is as traditionally American as anything else I could think of and something that they really don’t do in Europe. So I order my turkey and got ready to make my traditional Thanksgiving meal. Now as I have shared before I’m not really a baker, but we have a store in our area that makes the most wonderful Apple Pie on the planet and as I was doing the rest of the meal on my own decided that I could cheat on the dessert. So as I headed off to the store for last minute supplies on the Monday morning that we were hosting this bash and I sent my husband to pick up the pies. As I was perusing the produce department my phone rang. It was my husband, the store where we buy the pies is closed on Monday ( something we were not aware of) so there would be no Apple Pie for dessert. Great, I thought, just what I need right now. What am I going to do for dessert. I wandered through the bakery department, and nothing looked good. Shoot, I’m in trouble now.

Then it came to me. I have pecans! I’ll make Pecan Pie. It’s easy. Now, I have only made this once or twice in my life but my mom had a recipe that I scribbled down on a piece of paper and stuck in my little book of recipes years ago. I knew I needed Corn Syrup, but couldn’t remember much else, so I picked up a couple of frozen pie shells (remember I don’t bake), and the corn syrup and headed home to make pies before I started in on the rest of the meal. I open up my recipe book and found the recipe, well it was sort of a recipe, as all it was a list of the ingredients.  Wonderful! Thank good for google and people like us who post complete recipes online. I was able to figure out the required temperature and cooking time and I got those babies in the oven.

As it turned out the Pecan Pie was a hit. Our guest enjoyed it so much I sent him back to his hotel with a big piece for his breakfast the next morning and promised to send the recipe so he could make it back home. I figured as long as I’m writing the recipe down for him, I might as well share it with the rest of you.

Give it a try, it’s the easiest way to impress guests that I have found.

Pecan Pie

Marie Cook
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 cup Corn Syrup
  • 1 cup Pecan Half's

Instructions
 

  • Combine the eggs, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the sugar and corn syrup, mix well and pour into a ready made pie crust. Arrange the pecan half's on top in a circular pattern. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Pie is done when a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Pineapple Ginger Buckle

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Anyone who knows me knows I’m not much of a baker. You see cooking is an Art, a pinch of this, a dab of that, it’ll be okay. Missing an ingredient, there are a lot of things you can substitute, you just have to be creative and work with what you have. Baking on the other hand is a Science. You really have to follow that recipe and do things in the right order with the right ingredients or it just won’t come out right. Missing Baking Powder? No, you can’t substitute Baking Soda it will just fall flat.

So When my Friend Tony left me with a big beautiful Pineapple and a huge hunk of ginger I started think about what to do with them. Thai curry came to mind but I knew it would be a tough sale for the husband so I started to think dessert. What could I do with this that would be a good dessert. Being the novice baker that I am it needed to be simple and easy and something I had all the ingredients for.

Several years ago my sister, who by the way is a fantastic baker, made a Blueberry Buckle while we were on vacation and it was amazing. It looked simple enough and I thought it would be something I could handle so I started digging around on line for a recipe. I found one that looked good on the blog “A Taste Of Home” and thought let’s go with it and see what happens if I make it a Pineapple Ginger Buckle.

Well, it turns out this is a great recipe, how could it not be, it was her Grandmothers. I followed the recipe substituting the Pineapple for the Blueberries and adding fresh grated Ginger and, because I had some in the pantry, flaked coconut.

WOW, this thing is amazing. The sweetness of the Pineapple with the bite of that fresh Ginger and the crunchy Coconut, absolutely to die for.

Now I understand that I will not always be so lucky when making substitutions while baking but after this experience I may have to do more of it. After all we are all stuck at home with nothing to do, so I might as well learn a new skill.

 

Pineapple Ginger Buckel

Marie Cook
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 9 Servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup Butter Softened
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 2 cups All Purpose Flour
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/2 cup Milk
  • 2 cups Pineapple Chuncks Drained
  • 3 tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger 1tbsp ground dry ginger
  • 1/2 cup Flake Coconut

Topping

  • 2/3 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1/3 cup Cold Butter Cubed
  • 1/2 cup Flake Coconut

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternating with the milk, beating well after each addition, fold in the ginger, pineapple and coconut. Pour into a 9X9 greased baking pan.
    For the topping, in a small bowl combine the sugar, flour and coconut, cut in the butter until crumbly, I had to get in there with my hands and mush it up really good. Sprinkle the topping over the pineapple mixture and bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.