Description
A delicious and easy pecan pie recipe, using Williams Sonoma’s Pecan Pie-in-a-Jar, that creates a sweet pecan pie with a flaky, buttery crust. Perfect for Thanksgiving!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Pie Crust
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled with a knife
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled, sliced into small pieces
- 3 tbsp vegetable shortening, chilled, in 3 pieces
- 4 tbsp water, chilled
For the Pecan Filling
- 1/2 jar Pecan Pie-in-a-Jar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
For the Pie Crust
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor (fitted with the metal blade). Combine using the pulse setting a few times. Add butter and shortening, pulse until coarse crumbs form (totally normal to see pieces of butter and shortening in the mix!). Add the water and pulse a few times to add moisture to the dough. At this point, the dough should still be quite crumbly. Remove from the bowl, and place on a floured worksurface.
- Work the dough into a ball, and press down to create a disc shape. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
- On a lightly floured work surface, work the dough into a smooth disc. Be careful not to overwork it, you don’t need perfection – just a smooth surface that’s easy to roll out. (No prizes for guessing the next step.)
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a 12-13-inch circle. Without pushing in a crease, fold the dough in quarters, and transfer to your pie pan, being careful not to stretch it. Unfold the dough so that it’s centred in the pie pan. Trim the edges of excess dough (anything more than ½ inch hanging over the edge of the pie pan), and then press the edges of your dough gently into the rim of the pie pan. Place in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Cover the dough with a bit of parchment paper, and fill it up with baking beans. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the crust is partially cooked and pale in colour. Discard the parchment paper, and the baking beans, and set aside until the filling is prepared.
For the Filling
- Remove jar lid, and microwave Pecan Pie-in-a-Jar filling for 1 minute. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the eggs and butter; stir until well mixed.
Easy Pecan Pie, Assemble!
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Pour the prepared filling into the partially cooked pie shell. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven, and allow to cool overnight (or at least 4 hours).
- Dig in! (Ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream on the side.)
Notes
- If you’re using a store-bought crust, follow the instructions on the package. It will almost certainly be different to mine above.
- This pie takes at least 4 hours to cool, ideally overnight. It’s perfect to make one day ahead of serving.
- The type of pie pan you use can impact the baking time slightly. I used a 10-inch ceramic pie dish, which worked great, however there are some very heavy ceramic dishes that heat up slower than others, which can slow the baking process significantly (it won’t ruin the actual pie in any way, just mess with your timings a little). A Pyrex dish, on the other hand, may heat up even quicker than my ceramic pie dish, resulting in a slightly shorter baking time.
- That reminds me, once you’re done baking – the pie shouldn’t be super wobbly. If its jiggling like there’s no tomorrow, then it probably hasn’t set yet. Give it a few minutes in the oven and check it again.
- When your pecan pie is fresh out of the oven, it’ll look puffy and inflated. It’s normal for pie to shrink a little as it cools.
- When baking, it’s always prudent to place a baking tray lined with parchment paper underneath it. This isn’t there to fulfil any classical baking technique, it’s there in case you pie filling overflows! It’s easier to toss away parchment paper than it is to clean an oven.
When creating your pie crust
- When patting down your dough, you may see cracks form around the sides. Don’t worry, this is normal.
- Once you’ve let the dough sit in the refrigerator for 45 minutes and are ready to proceed: Depending on how tough it is to work with, you might consider letting it sit outside for 10 minutes until it’s soft enough to roll.
- It’s always good practice to maintain a slightly floured worksurface, as well as a little flour on your hands. This is to stop the dough sticking either to your fingers or your worksurface!
- When rolling dough, you can rotate the dough so that it rolls out evenly. And don’t forget to flour your rolling pin from time to time too! (You’ll only need a small pinch of flour to do this each time. Just remind yourself that you’re flouring the rolling pin, not breading it!)
- If, at any point, your dough tears, don’t worry. You can just patch it back together. Dough’s good like that.
- If you don’t have baking beans or any pie weights, you can substitute with uncooked rice or lentils.
While decorating your pie crust
- You’ll need a little extra dough. You can use the leftover/cutaway dough. But in order to have a lot of options (for how you want to decorate), your best option is to double the dough preparation stage.
- Life will be a lot easier if you have some pie punches (dough cutters). If you happen to have surgical precision…a detailing knife will work too. I’ll stick to using my pretty pie punches.
Regarding the filling
- About half a jar of Williams Sonoma’s Pecan Pie in a Jar filling is enough for a standard 9-inch pie dish. However, you may need a bit more or less depending on the size and depth of your pie dish.
- Before adding in the eggs, you may need to let your microwaved filling cool slightly. You don’t want to end up with cooked eggs, after all!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
