I love pecan pie, but hate the goo in between the crust and delicious, crispy, sweet pecans. I want to make a totally non-traditional pecan pie that still keeps that wonderful top. I don't know what else would go with pecans to substitute for the goo. Any ideas?
You could make a custard base, with the pecan topping. Pumpkin is such a base, but there are many others. My favorite childhood pie was a sour cream raisin, which had a sour cream egg custard loaded with raisins. A solid layer of pecans would have been a luxury layer on top
Mincemeat also comes to mind as a base that should work with a nut top.
You might take a look at David Tanis' pecan recipes in the NY Times this week; he includes some pecan bars that look good to me - a shortcrust base, a layer of dates, spices and molasses, lots of pecans on top like a pie. He refers to the middle layer as gooey, but it sounds more like "chewy" to me, and looks much thinner (and perhaps less sweet) than the sugary part of a pie.
This recipe sounds like something you might like.
Ginger Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Topping
Dough for a single 9" pie shell using your favorite recipe.
2 eggs
2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 14-oz can pumpkin puree (about 1 1/2 cups) -- NOT pie filling
3/4 cup milk
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar -- lightly packed
1/3 cup corn syrup
1-1/2 cups pecan halves
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a 9" pie plate with your favorite pie dough. Do not prick bottom. Set aside, unbaked, and precede with the recipe.
Break eggs into large bowl, whisking until blended. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, chopped ginger (optional) salt and nutmeg until well blended. Add pumpkin and milk, stirring until fully incorporated.
Pour pumpkin mixture into unbaked pie shell. Bake on bottom rack of oven about 10 to 12 minutes, until crust is golden around edges. Reduce heat to 325 F and continue baking about 45-50 minutes additional, until filling seems set in center when lightly jiggled. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack you make the topping.
Topping: Preheat broiler.
In a large saucepan, combine sugars and corn syrup. Cook mixture over medium heat, uncovered, about 3-4 minutes. Stir frequently during this time, until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in pecans. Spoon the sugared pecans over warm pie filling and place the pie in center of oven. Cook briefly, watching the whole time, since the sugar in the topping may bubble and scorch in less than 1 minute.
Remove pie from oven and place on cooling rack.
Serve pie either warm or at room temperature.
Pie will keep well at room temperature for several hours. For longer storage, cover cooled pie and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
This pie is a favorite because it doesn't have much/any goo: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
This is not pie (so may serve your wish to be nontraditional) but has all the good sweet pecan crunch with absolutely no goo: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ultranu...
I think pecan pie works better as a tart because the goo is usually too sweet. The shallowness of the tart means that you can get a higher proportion of nuts and crust in each bite.
Along those line, consider loading way more pecans into the shells than are called for in the recipe. Then, pour only enough of the liquid into the pie shell as can fill in the space between the nuts.
I use a recipe that is supposed to make one pie, but by the time I get through filling the shell with pecans, I can get two pies from the quantity of goo produced by the standard recipe.
Does it work with double the pecans? I read that the nuts float up above the goo and burn... But I believe you if you've done it. That would be a perfect pie: all topping, no goo.
I don't know that I precisely double the pecans. That's why I used the less-than-precise phrase "way more pecans". I do know that I generously fill the pie shell and pour the liquid into the spaces between the nuts.
If you follow the link to the recipe for pecan bars upthread, you'll see a photograph of pecan bars. You can see the side the side of the bars: a densely packed cluster of pecans thinly coated with the goo. The pecans in that recipe don't go floating up and burn, and they don't in mine. There's no "puddle" of liquid for the pecans to float on in either the bar or the dense-packed pie version.
+1 on a tart rather than a pie. Also, Lyle's Golden Syrup is much better than corn syrup if you can tolerate a bit of goo.
I actually just created a Chowhound account precisely to ask this question, and I'd love some feedback about some ideas that I've had:
There's a classic French pie called Nougat de Tours, which is not in fact a nougat, but rather a tart shell with a meringue-like "macaronade" layer (egg whites, some sugar, and almond meal). Here's a recipe in english: http://thehistorianandthechef.weebly.....
I was thinking that this might produce a nice, crunchy base for a pecan pie, substituting pecan meal for the almond meal, including chopped pecans folded into the filling, perhaps swapping in some brown sugar or maple sugar within the meringue filling, and topping with bourbon-glazed pecans on top.
Any thoughts or feedback?
funnily enough I was thinking along the lines of a pecan 'frangipane' when I read the original post. Would be good I think.
Hhhhhhhhhhhhhuu! Frangipanis (which I've never heard on but somehow my phone has)
https://katherineeats.wordpress.com/2...
https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/cr...
I've never had frangipani before. Ia the top still crispy crunchy?
frangipane isn't crunchy really, more soft but in a good way, I would still do a chopped nut topping of some kind.
Frangipane is "toothsome", I would say--it has substance, like a cookie, but it's not crispy. The "macaronade" filling that I posted above would be a bit more crunchy. But yes, I agree with Foxeyblue below, in either case, a crunchy nut topping is a good idea!
I know what you mean about the goo,and I don't like it either. I've tried a few recipes in years past that did not use corn syrup, and they were better to my taste.
I once made a Spanish nut tart....it's Catalan and also called musician's tart. If you google "spanish nut tart" or "musicians tart", you might some recipes that you can adapt. Sometimes the recipes included dried fruit, but sometimes not.
I just googled and got this one among many others:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/...
and this one
I think a pecan tart is what you want as others have already suggested.
Or pecan tassies, which are like mini pecan pies that are goo-free, but have those same flavors
https://www.google.com/amp/www.martha...
Why can't you just reduce the amount of corn syrup (or make a version without it) and add more pecans? That's worked for me in the past.
A few years back I purchased a bottle of Lyle's Golden Syrup what drew my attention was attached to the bottle was an "awarding winning" pecan pie recipe. I made it using a deep dish pie crust, but I think the recipe was formulated for a standard pie crust. The pecan pie was tart-like.
My long winded point. The pecan pie was actually pretty good and the custardy goo was minimal.
You may find the recipe on the Lyle's website... I'll look for the recipe at home and post, if I can find it.
What about a variation of Linday Shere's almond tart made with pecans? http://www.latimes.com/food/la.-fo-li...
I saw this today and thought of this post: http://bakingbites.com/2016/11/dulce-...
It looks delicious, and goo-free!
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