Nov 26: Pecan Pie for Turkey Day

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving where we gather with friends and family to share thanks and eat!

The lore of Thanksgiving goes back to the colonist in Plymouth... starving and suffering from a poor harvest, the colonist were on the verge of a famine. Thankfully, the local Native American tribe came to the rescue with food. Everyone feasted! This is what we learned in elementary school...

I've been wanting to try Golden Syrup and I found a bottle at the local supermarket. Golden Syrup is an inverted sugar, similar to corn syrup, but with more flavor than corn syrup. The golden syrup has a light caramel flavor.

The Golden Syrup came with a Pecan Pie recipe... A famous pecan pie recipe!
[Ref: http://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/LylesGoldenSyrup/default_us.htm]
Of course, I have to give it a try!



Pecan Pie
1 (9-inch) pie shell [I used a Pillsbury premade pie crust]
1 1/2 cup pecans
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the sugar, egg yolks, golden syrup, butter, cream and salt into a sauce pan.
Heat on low to medium-low, stirring to combine.
Heat mixture to 160 F. When the color is uniform and slightly thickens...
Pour mixture through a strainer into a bowl.
Mix in vanilla.


Pre-bake the crust.
Unroll the crust and fit into a pie pan.


Dock (prick) the crust with a fork to prevent puffing.
Optional: Fancy up the edges for a better appearance.


Allow the crust to cool.
When cool arrange the pecans.


Pour the strained syrup mixture over the pecans, making sure the pecans are coated.
I also added more pecans by hand


Bake 350F for 20 minutes.


This will be the contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
It looks good... Hopefully it will taste good too.

Curry Pocket Pie

The little $0.69/pound chicken has provided quite a few meals this week.
Chicken Pot Pie
Hot and Sour Soup
A couple items that I haven't mentioned - chicken salad sandwiches and rice cooked using the chicken stock.

I still have a pie crust in the refrigerator so I decied to make pocket pies with a curry filling.
It's just actually an excuse to eat pie crust. :-)

Curry Pocket Pies

The Fixins:
1/3 C Frozen Peas
1.5 C Potatoes, diced about 1/4"
Pie crust
1 chunk of Curry - I used medium-hot, but you can you mild. I tend to like food on the spicy side.
1/2 C Onion, chopped
about 1/2 C Spinach, frozen
1/3 C Carrot, diced

Not shown
1.5 C Chicken, shredded
1.5 C Chicken stock.


Saute the onions, carrots and potatoes.
Add the chicken stock and the curry cube.
Simmer about 10 minutes to cook the potatoes and thicken.
Add the spinach and peas. The residual heat will heat the frozen veggies.

For the pie crust, pressed out five 2 in diameter rounds, a mini 1.25 in diameter round and a larger pie with the leftover. I used a rolling pin to enlarge the rounds, but also make the crust thinner.

Technically, I should have let the filling cool completely before making the pocket pies, but I was hungry. Working quickly, the unbaked pies are shown below. I also made a feeble attempt at applying an eggwash onto the pies. I couldn't find my basting brushes. They're probably buried in the bottom of the drawers somewhere. lol



Bake 375 for 15 minutes.

I was worried that the hot filling would sog out the crust, but the pies were crispy and flakey with a slightly spicy curry flavor.