23 heavenly pies

Stir It Up! has collected 23 pie recipes – wonderful in every way – for any occasion. 

Southern pecan pie

The Runaway Spoon
Southern pecan pie.

By Perre Coleman Magness, The Runaway Spoon
Serves 6–8 

Lightly toasting the pecans enhances the nutty flavor of the pie. I prefer dark corn syrup for a rich, deep pie, but there are those who prefer to use light. The bourbon is theoretically optional, but really? It seems to add to the Southern flavor. And I will never tell if the crust did not originate in your kitchen.

For the crust

1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

For the filling

1-1/2 cups pecan halves
4 large eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup
4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)

1. For the crust: Place the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Drop in the small pieces of cold butter and pulse several times until the mixture is crumbly, but some minute pieces of butter are still visible. Sprinkle the water over, a tablespoon at a time, and pulse to combine. When the pastry just comes together, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling.

2. When ready to roll, place the disk on a lightly floured surface and using a floured rolling pin, roll out the pastry to a round about 14 inches in diameter, to fit a nine inch pie plate. Carefully drape the pastry over the rolling pin and transfer to the pie dish. Gently fit into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim any overhanging pastry and lightly dust the bottom of the prepared crust with flour. Set aside.

3. For the filling: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Place the pecan halves in a dry skillet and lightly toast over medium heat. Watch carefully and move the pecans around the pan with a spatula or wooden spoon. You do not want to brown the pecans, just toast them gently until you can smell a nice, nutty aroma. This will only take about five minutes. Remove the pecans from the heat and set aside.

5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients until thoroughly blended. Add the pecans and stir to distribute evenly. Pour the filling into the prepared crust, pushing the nuts into the filling to make an even layer.

6. Bake the pie for 40 – 50 minutes until the center is puffed up and no longer wobbly. I recommend that you shield the edges of the crust with foil or a crust shield before the pie goes in the oven. It is hard to do when the pie is hot. Remove the cooked pie from the oven and leave to cool completely. The pie will keep wrapped tightly for two days, or can be wrapped in plastic wrap, then foil and frozen for up to six months.

Click here to read the full Stir It Up! blog post

19 of 23

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.