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pecans

Midnight Snack Perfection: Fudgey Chocolate Pecan Brownies

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IMG_1380 The fellas in our house have a serious sweet tooth around, say, 10pm. They always want just a little taste of chocolate, and sometimes they squirrel away tootsie rolls, Oreos, or whatever little snack they can to munch on while everyone else is tucked in bed. We had a brand new carton of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream and a bag of pecans, so it just seemed right to make a batch of fudgey, gooey brownies that would be perfect for sundaes before I went away to the Southern Foodways Alliance Food & Media event last weekend…. as a little thank you for making sure my little guy didn’t miss me TOO much.

This was a super duper easy recipe, and if you’ve got a nut allergy or just aren’t into pecans, then you can leave them out and still make a killer brownie sundae. Also, I added a little coffee and bourbon since people swear that coffee HAS to be added to chocolate, and because I love bourbon, but I can’t totally swear that they made a huge difference. Since they were so good, though, I can’t say that they didn’t. 😉

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Delta BBQ’d Pecans

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When I was in high school, this cute little gift boutique gave me a holiday job wrapping presents. I think I spent most of the money I earned buying these crazy expensive praline pecans that we sold there so I could stuff my face while I worked… typical.But on the upside, I was REALLY able to sell the you-know-what out of those pecans to just about everyone who walked in.

I’m not going to try to do that to you, but I will tell you that these BBQ pecans are mighty fine as a happy hour snack, afternoon pick me up, party-food, or a little nibble between the hours of midnight and the next night at 11pm. They’re just the right amount of salty, crunchy, roasty, and spicy and turn just the most lovely brown color, and also go super well with a robust craft beer or bourbon cocktail.

Plus, they are SUPER easy.

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The real deal…Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

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My mother in law, Shirley is an INCREDIBLE baker. A serious sweets maker. A sugar-craving away-taker.
So when she asked me to chip into the Thanksgiving preparations by making a pecan pie I felt more than a little nervous… thankfully, she was making an apple AND a pumpkin pie just in case. 😉

She also made enough crust so I could just use the flaky pastry she’s perfected over the years…which meant that I was really just in charge of the filling. I wanted to jazz up the standard pecan pie recipe she had just a bit, so I combined a couple of recipes that looked good and ended up with a Chocolate. Bourbon. Pecan. Pie. that was the real deal for people who need a little something (or a lot of something) sweet after ALL the thanksgiving gorging.

 
I wanted to share the recipe here since it was really tasty AND I was able to get Shirley’s fantastic pie crust recipe with tips and notes straight from the horse’s mouth.  Read on because it’s hard to find a foolproof pie crust recipe AND because I promise this pie isn’t only good in November.
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
 Serves 8-ish
 
What you need: 
For the Pie Crust…
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon of Crisco or other shortening
2 Tablespoons of cool water
 For the filling…
2 cups pecan halves or pieces
3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 Cup butter, melted
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons good-quality bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
What you Do:
Preheat your oven to 325.
Once that’s done we’ll get started with the crust… Shirley’s favorite recipe comes from a super Classic Betty Crocker cookbook. It’s clear that this book has been used and loved and cooked from for decades, and her pies are always SO good there’s no need to fix something that isn’t broken.

To make the crust, mix your salt into the flour in a medium mixing bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour/salt mixture using a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture is the size of peas. Shirley uses a fork, and works just right, so if you don’t have a pastry cutter, don’t fret or run out and buy one. (this is Shirley, hard at work.)

Add in the water, one Tablespoon at a time, sprinkling it around the flour/shortening mixture and stirring/working it into the flour with the fork until it’s moistened. At this point, you’ll need to get your hands in it (or WANT to… we’re making pie crust here!) Gather the dough together with your hands until it releases from the sides of the bowl. 
Press it into a ball. Whatever you do, don’t overwork the dough… this means, just press the dough enough in your hands to make it a ball.. anything more than that, you’re overworking it.
 

Now, lightly flour your work surface and turn the ball of dough out onto it. Lightly flour the rolling pin and/or the top of the ball of dough so it won’t stick. No really… lightly flour this so you don’t work too much flour into the dough otherwise it’ll be too tough.

 Flatten your dough ball just a little by hand, and then roll it out. If your dough cracks at the edges, you can work it back together with your hands.

Tip from Shirley: Roll the dough from the center of the ball OUTWARD so that your pie ends up a more uniform thickness.

You’ll need to roll the dough into a circle about 1/8″ thick. It’ll also need to be a 1″-2″ inches greater than the diameter of the pan. (so if your pan is 9″ in diameter, then you’ll want to have 10″ or 11″ circle of pie crust”

THIS IS TRICKY for the beginner, but you can do it! Make sure the top of the crust is lightly floured and fold the the dough circle in half to make a half-moon. Carefully (eeks!) lift the dough into your pie pan with the fold in the center and then unfold it to cover the entire pan. Lightly press the dough down onto the edges of the pan, and along the sides.
The dough will hang over the edge of the pan a little bit. It’s almost time to crimp the crust and make it pretty, but first  you’ll want to roll the dough along the edges back under so that you have a little extra ridge of dough to work with. Then, you can take your thumbs and make an imprint with a little raised ridge between each. Continue around the pan using both thumbs. You can technically also use a fork for this if you want a different kind of edge, but Shirley crinkles her nose and shakes her head at this tactic.”Use your thumbs,” she says.

 
At this point you can set the pie crust aside and start on your filling. Pull all your ingredients together, since this is a dump and stir kind of deal.
Start by combining your eggs and sugar and mix well. Add in your corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon and stir into the eggs, then add in your melted butter.


I added the pecans BEFORE the butter the first time, but I recommend adding the pecans and chocolate chips in last so that all of the liquid ingredients are able to mix and incorporate super well.

Pour the mixture into your pie crust and and bake at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the filling sets. Let sit to firm up and cool for a about 10 minutes, then cut and serve (ideally with vanilla ice cream!)
Hope you like Shirley and my first cooking collaboration (the first of many!)

bourbon ice cream with salted butter pecans

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what did you do for labor day? we got to spend the long weekend with four super fun, outdoorsy friends at my folks’ teensy cabin in southern ms. the plan had been to go tubing, and swimming, and fishing, but weather reports like this totally put the kabash on them. we ended up slogging around in the mud and doing lots of cooking, drinking, and talking. it was just what i’d needed.

the pieces de resistance were two ice creams from jess’s jeni’s splendid ice creams cookbook. we made a deeee-licious curry chocolate and this velvety, rich bourbon and pecan ice cream. according to garden & gun, it’s national bourbon heritage month, so i thought i’d share this recipe with you, too!

What You Need:

For the Salted Butter Pecans:
3/4 cups pecan halves
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Bourbon Ice Cream:
2 cups whole milk, divided
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup Bourbon

for the pecans (embarrassing note, i bought walnuts and took pictures of them before i realized my mistake, but then went and got pecans before we actually made the ice cream) chop the nuts into small-ish pieces, and melt the butter. coat the pecans and sprinkle the salt. you can use the oven at 350 OR do the easy thing and toast them in the microwave on high for about 40 seconds. put them aside once they’re brown and buttery looking.

for the ice cream, get a small bowl, and whisk together 2 tablespoons of the milk and the cornstarch together and put it to the side (the recipe calls for it to be a “slurry” honestly, no idea what this means… we just mixed it all together), then whisk together cream cheese and salt until it’s all smooth in a separate bowl.

heat the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan over medium high heat. bring to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for 4-ish minutes. remove from heat and whisk in the cornstarch. bring the mixture back to a boil and allow it to thicken a little bit (for about 1-2 minutes). take the pot from heat and then, little by little, whisk the hot mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. stir in bourbon. Pour the mixture into a big plastic bag or a metal bowl and place in an ice water bath until cool. i swear, i felt like this took for-ev-er, but probably only took about 30 minutes.
Freeze ice cream according to your ice cream makers instructions, (but note that ours really didn’t freeze much in the maker at all. once it finished in the ice cream maker, we added the pecans,  put it in a freezer-safe container and slid it in the freezer overnight.) the recipe calls for a 4 hour freeze time, so make sure to plan ahead…otherwise, you end up with ice cream for breakfast, like us. (not that i’m complaining even a little bit. deeeeeee-licious.)

 

how are you going to enjoy bourbon heritage month?