Pecan Pie and Vanilla Ice-Cream

Happy Thanksgiving folks   I'm going to a potluck Thanksgiving dinner in Balally in Dublin tonight.  And I will be bringing some of these pecan pies (because I have a bottle of Karo) and some homemade ice-cream made with condensed milk (because traditional egg custard based ice-cream is rich with protein which will not be welcomed by the Move 4 Parkinsons choir that will be present).

This is Bakerella's recipe for Pecan Pie (Irish-ised).


Mama’s Pecan Pies
Makes 3 pies or about 33 mini pies

450g pecans
200g Butter
450g package light soft brown sugar
1 heaped tablespoon Self Raising Flour
16 oz. bottle light corn syrup (Karo)
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
6 eggs
3 regular size (not deep dish) pie crusts

Melt butter in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until melted and set aside.
Prepare your pecans. Remove any unwanted brown pieces from the pecan crevices and shake out pecan crumbs in a colander.
Place brown sugar in a large bowl. Work out any lumps with the back of a spoon. If the brown sugar is too hard, you can loosen it up in the microwave. Heat it for a few seconds and it will be fine.
Add a heaping serving tablespoon of self-raising flour and stir until the flour disappears into the brown sugar.
Add a bottle of light corn syrup. Then add 1 serving tablespoon of vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.
Add melted margarine. Fold carefully into the mixture so it doesn’t splatter. Fold until the margarine is thoroughly worked in and disappears.
In a separate bowl, crack open six eggs. Remove the “roosters” and loosely beat the eggs with your spoon.
Fold the eggs into the pie mixture until they disappear.
Add pecans and stir until completely coated.
Remove three pie shells from the freezer at this point and check for cracks. If you do have a crack, thaw and knead the crack together and refreeze.
Pour the mixture evenly into the three shells. You’ll probably have a little bit leftover in the bowl. Tap tops with a spoon to check consistency and make sure there is the same amount in each pie. Redistribute pecans if necessary to make equal.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 175. Cook pies until they swell and then fall. At that point they are done.
Remove and cool for about three hours. Store on the counter or in the refrigerator depending on how you like your pie.


Eggless Vanilla Ice-Cream
1 can of condensed Milk
1.2Ltr Double Cream (I know insane right)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1. In a stand whisk ingredients together until thick and quite stiff.
2. Pour into a freeze proof container and cover with cling film (this ice-cream does not need to be churned.

Footnote
I wound up being too late and now have much Ice-cream in the freezer and Pecan Pie in the fridge

Mince pies

In this recipe I use a jar of Mincemeat in a simple shortcrust pastry base.  Shop bought pastry is fine but nothing beats the homemade stuff.  This is something really simple that can be done with kids or let them do on their own.  You will need Bun tin, Cookie Cutters - either two circular cutters one larger than the other for the top and bottom of the tart, or a circle for the bottom and a star shape for the top.  If you are using a circular top make sure to leave a slit or hole to let the steam out.


Shortcrust pastry 
Milk or egg for glazing
Icing Sugar
Mincemeat


Method

1. Preheat the Oven to 170C, Grease the tin
2. Cut the Top and the bottom of each pie to make sure you have the same amount of tops and bottoms (I have mis-counted before)
3. Place the bases in the tin.  Fill each with 1 generous tsp of mincemeat and cover with the top. 
4. Brush with milk or egg
5. Bake in the oven for 10-15mins until golden brown. 
6. Sprinkle with Icing Sugar and serve warm or cold with brandy/whiskey butter, cream or custard.

What is Mincemeat?

A preserve of dried fruit, spices, sugar and suet and sometimes alcohol common to Ireland and the UK. It would have originally contained meat as an ingredient as the name suggests but not these days.  Mincemeat is usually used to make mince tarts around Christmas time.  I could give you a recipe for mincemeat, but as I haven't got a tried and tested recipe, I won't post one here.  The truth is that you can buy good quality Mincemeat at a reasonable price.  I have it on good authority that Santa is a fan.

Cookie cutters

A cookie cutter is a shape that when applied to either pastry or certain cookie doughs cuts a shape in that form.   But lets face it, a glass will do! but the cookie cutters are so cute but can be addictive. I have a selection of them and I have had to organise them into labled ziplock bags but I have seen much worse.  I have certain associations some of which I understand their origins such as what would a gingerbread man be if not that shape (actually the answer is a gingerbread woman - I thought he was getting a little lonely and so his bachelor days are over) but then again I think Shortbread I think Hearts, I think spiced cookies I think stars.

Best cookie cutters to use: I would say that the best cookie cutters to use are the metal ones because they cut out the lines of the cookie cleanly and with ease.  But plastic will do just fine.

Tips:

• Always flour before use and during cutting cookies this helps with speed and consistency of shape
• Wash in warm soapy water, dry thoroughly and if using metal pop the cookie cutters back into the oven as it cools down after making the cookies to dry them out completely and prevent rust and discolouration.
• Store them so you can find them easily.  If you know you'll spend needless time finding the right one you won't go looking for it.  I've heard multiple suggestions for this but I use labelled Ziploc bags e.g. Christmas, Circles, etc.

Rolling out Shortcrust Pastry

It can be a pain in the rear rolling out pastry.  If you want to roll it out evenly and make it easy to pick up the trick is to roll it out between two sheets of grease proof paper.  Roll in one direction but keep turning the disk to get an even shape.  When it comes to lining your tin peel the top layer off and place whats left in the tin pastry side down.  Peel the remaining layer of grease proof paper off gently.

Baking Blind

Baking blind is to par-bake pastry so that the filling does not make the crust mushy.

To bake blind you will need:

Grease proof paper/ baking parchment or brown paper
Ceramic baking beads/ Chickpeas or other dried pulses
Egg white

Method

1. Place the pastry in the tin.  
2. Place a sheet of paper a little larger than the tin on top of the tin.  
3. Fill the sheet with baking beads
4. Bake in the oven for 10 mins
5. Remove from the oven remove the beads and the paper.  Glaze the  pastry case with egg white and return to the oven for 5 mins

Plum Tart

I have a love hate relationship with plums.  I can abide them fresh but adore them cooked.  So when they're cheap I buy them buy the punnet load.  This is a really simple tart.  Open faced it is undeniably pretty with its slices arranged in a circle.  The maple syrup balances the sourness of the plums but honey would work equally well.  Finally there is a little warmth in the cinnamon.  Serve warm with ice-cream, custard, or flavoured cream.

1 Quantity of Almond Shortcrust Pastry
8-12 Plums (washed and with the stones taken out you'll need enough plums to fill the tart)
Maple Syrup
half tsp Cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C
2. Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a coin and place in a greased pie dish.  Bake Blind
3. Slice the Plums thinly and generously fill the tart
4. Drizzle Maple syrup over the top
5. Sprinkle Cinnamon over the tart before returning it to the oven for 10 mins

Banoffee Pie

This is incredibly easy to make and it tastes so good - the perfect desert.

200ml Cream
half a flake bar
1 can Condensed Milk*
1 small pkt Digestive Biscuits
50g Butter
1 Banana

1. Melt butter over a gentle heat. Crush biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin until it forms crumbs then add to melted butter. Press into a spring form or loose bottomed tin.

2. Pour condensed milk caramel onto biscuit base and top with sliced banana.

3. Smooth whipped cream over the bananas and sprinkle crumbled flake on top. Refrigerate.

*Prepare several tins of condensed milk at a time and you can keep them in the cupboard to use as you need them. Place unopened in a pot and cover it with water and simmer for 4 hours top up the water as necessary. Be warned let the tin cool before you open it (or it could explode in your face)