The Perfectly Nutty Brigsten's Pecan Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream

I am not a fan of Pecan Pie. I think it is too sweet, and weirdly also bitter. I'm also not a huge fan of the almost jell-o like consistency the filling can reach. It's just not my thing, and not my choice of holiday pies. Pumpkin pie really is the reigning monarch of Thanksgiving pies. So it's a little strange that one of the pies I make the most frequently and is most coveted by TK is my pecan pie. It's my exception pecan pie. I like to say I dislike all pecan pies, except for this one which is delicious and perfect in every way. It focuses on the delicious nutty flavor and nothing else. No mouthful of sweet. No orange. Just deep roasted nut flavor.

This recipe comes from my favorite restaurant in New Orleans, Brigsten's. Obviously. Where but New Orleans could convince me not only to re-examine the pecan pie, but to embrace it? And where else would finding out that a restaurant published a couple of recipes online cause me to get so excited I had to make them all immediately? Turns out, the first secret to a great pecan pie is the same one I have long applied to most of my pinenut recipes- always toast your nuts, and the deeper and darker you toast them, the richer and rounder your flavors. This recipe dark roasts its pecans, then grinds them up into a paste of roasted pecan that is added to the curd to soften the corn syrup, add texture, and generally take this pie to another level. The second secret is a flaky crust.

Pie crusts and I have a troubled history. How to make a good pie crust is so deceptively simple from the offset, but so fraught with danger and errors in the implementation. The trick to getting a crust nice and flaky is to only mix the dough enough that you can still see swirls and spots of raw butter. Those little butter spots will become little air pockets that flake out the crust and give it its rich buttery goodness. The trick is getting your dough to where it needs to be without having to overwork your dough and lose the flaky texture. And the way to make that happen is to keep everything as cold as possible throughout the pie making process. Anything I can do to keep my ingredients cold, I do without hesitation, including Brigsten's trick which is to freeze the butter, then grate the frozen stick through a box grater. I take it further and put the flour and butter mixture back in the freezer to refreeze prior to working together, but either way, the grating goes a long way towards minimizing the amount of time you need to handle the dough. Likewise, if at ANY point you feel like your dough is getting too warm, stop what you are doing, return the dough and/or tools to the freezer, give it a twenty minute rest, then come back to it.

I bought a pastry scraper for the sole purpose of assisting with the creation of pie crusts, but you don't need one, particularly if you are rolling out your dough between two sheets of parchment paper. If when you try and pull the flattened dough it starts to stick, return the parchment paper sandwiched dough to the fridge to chill for fifteen minutes, then try again. If using a pastry scraper, keep scraper in the freezer when not immediately using. Slide under the dough to cut it away, being very careful not to stretch the crust. Do not stretch the dough to fit the pan or as you are lifting the pan. Any stretching done to the dough will shrink back down as the pie bakes. You can use leftover dough to fill any cracks or holes in the crust, again being careful not to stretch out the dough.


Brigsten's Pecan Pie

For the dough:

1 cup all-purpose white flour
½ teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
 ¼ cup ice water

For the filling:

½ cup darkly roasted pecans, ground
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
 1 cup medium pecan pieces
 
Bourbon Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream 
1/2 cup sour cream 
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 
1/8 teaspoon table salt 
2 teaspoons bourbon

 

Instructions

 

For the Dough-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Place butter, rolling pin, pastry scraper, pastry cutter (if using) in freezer until moments before you are ready to use.
3. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. 
4. Once butter is ice cold and hard but not quite frozen, use the large holes of a hand grater, grate the butter into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture. If your fingers warm the butter, place bowl in freezer for fifteen minutes before continuing.
5. Lightly blend the butter and flour mixture with your fingertips until the texture is like coarse cornmeal. Be careful not to overwork the dough.
6. Add the ice water and blend until incorporated, moving as fast as possible. Swirls or spots of butter are not a problem and will resolve themselves during cooking and will result in a flaky crust.
7. Form the dough into a ball and blend until thoroughly incorporated. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for forty five minutes.
8. Place dough between two sheets of parchment paper or on a well floured countertop. Roll out the dough, adding flour as necessary and working as quickly as possible, to 1/8-inch thick. If dough starts to get too warm, stop, move disc of dough in parchment paper to fridge for fifteen minutes, then remove and continue rolling.
9. Remove top layer of parchment paper if using. Place an 8 ½ inch pie pan face down on the dough and cut the dough to fit the pan, leaving a border of about 1 1/2 inch.
10. Line the pan with the dough while removing second layer of parchment paper with a pastry scraper if necessary, being sure not to stretch the dough. trim the edges, and fill in any gaps with leftover dough and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use (at least one hour).

For the Filling-

1.  Toast pecans in dry skillet or roast on baking sheet until darkly colored and fragrant.
2. Grind pecans using either a morter and pestle, a coffee grinder, or a small food processor.
3. In an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, add the eggs and beat on high speed until frothy, about 1 minute. 
4. Add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt, and ground roasted pecans.
5.  Beat on medium speed until well blended. 
6. Stir in the pecan pieces with a rubber spatula.
7. Pour the filling into the pie shell. 
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 
9. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is browned on top and the crust is light golden brown.  20 - 30 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Serves 6-8.

 

For the Whipped Cream-

1. In bowl of standing mixer or with hand mixer, whisk heavy cream, sour cream, brown sugar, and salt until combined. 
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least 4 hours or up to 24, stirring once or twice during chilling to ensure that sugar dissolves.
3. When ready to serve, add bourbon and beat mixture with whisk attachment at medium speed until small bubbles form around edges, about 40 seconds. 
4. Increase speed to high and continue to beat until fluffy or starts to form soft peaks and doubled in volume, about 1 minute longer. 
5. Serve.

Bourbon French Toast

French Toast (usually with a side of bacon) is my go-to brunch item and vessel of choice for delicious grade B maple syrup (mmm, impurities).

The most important decision with French Toast is, ahem, the toast bit. You can make French Toast with whatever you have in general sandwich supplies, or with leftover dinner bread (not a baguette, but larger loaves). I've had more success the thicker and fresher the bread. So, if you're buying supplies and not just scanning your kitchen come the morning, think Texas Toast (basically thicker white bread), or a loaf of challah bread from the bakery if you can get it. The best French Toast I've made is with homemade challah, but assuming you haven't just baked bread, store bought challah is easy enough to find and just the right absorbency. Plus, anytime you can cut your own bread and choose your thickness, it's is a win.

This being said, if your bread is super fresh, it will probably need to be dried out at a little in order to absorb well. The tradition for French Toast is for it to be leftover, day old bread, so that's one way to achieve it with fresh bread, but the preservatives in most store breads mean that we have to parch it out a little. What you don't want is rock-hard bread, or toast. You still want it soft in the middle. Just a bit dried out on the outside.

You want to be careful to make sure that when the bread is done soaking, the pan is already hot and buttered, which means you need to start heating the pan and adding the butter before and while the bread is soaking. If your timing does not match up perfectly, they can rest on a small plate while the butter melts, but try not to let them rest too long.

This recipe does NOT make a ton more than it says it makes, so if you have extra mouths to feed, make a double batch. Nor is this what I would call a "quick and easy" breakfast. You do indeed make a mess. But that's what Sunday breakfast is FOR. It is based loosely on this Cooks Illustrated recipe, but has since taken on a life of its own.

Bourbon French Toast

8	large slices hearty white sandwich bread or good-quality challah
11/2	cups whole milk , warmed
2	large egg yolks
1	large egg
3	tablespoons light brown sugar
11/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2	teaspoon nutmeg
2	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted, plus 2 tablespoons for cooking
1/4	teaspoon table salt
1	tablespoon vanilla extract
1	tablespoon Jack Daniels bourbon
1	teaspoon honey (optional, or less to taste)
	Maple syrup, warmed

Instructions Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Place bread on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet. Bake bread until almost dry throughout (center should remain slightly moist), about 16 minutes, flipping slices halfway through cooking. Remove bread from rack and let cool. This step can be skipped if the bread is already slightly stale (but not hard). Return baking sheet with wire rack to oven and reduce temperature to 200 degrees. Whisk warmed milk, egg and yolks from room-temp eggs (leave in a bowl of luke warm water for five minutes to bring them up to temperature straight from the fridge), sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, 2 tablespoons melted butter (pref NOT immediately from the microwave, please, though still warm), salt, Jack Daniels and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add honey carefully to taste. Do not overdo it on the honey. You just want a note. Remember to warm the milk before adding the melted butter or the mixture will curdle and need to be re-done. Transfer mixture to 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Soak bread in milk mixture (as many as you can fit in a frying pan) until saturated but not falling apart, 16-23 seconds per side. Count. It may require a little more or less depending on bread thickness, so its good to get an idea of how long it is (exactly) for the bread you're using. Using firm slotted spatula, pick up bread slice and allow excess milk mixture to drip off; repeat with remaining soaked slices. They should not break but should be somewhat delicate to move. Meanwhile, heat ½ tablespoon butter in 12-inch skillet over medium to medium-low heat. When foaming subsides, use slotted spatula to transfer slices soaked bread to skillet and cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. (If toast is cooking too quickly, reduce temperature slightly.) Transfer to baking sheet in oven. Repeat cooking with remaining bread, adding ½ tablespoon of butter for each batch. Serve warm with maple syrup and powdered sugar on top if you are feeling fancy. As always, I prefer Grade B.