I was looking at my pecan trees today and decided it was time for a fresh Homemade pecan pie! I can eat pecan pie year around. With the cooler weather around the corner, I really like baking.
I have never seen my trees so loaded down, some have clusters of 4 pecans on one small branch. I have only seen 3 in a cluster! Some of the tree limbs are leaning all the way to the ground! We will have plenty this year! That is awesome! My trees are so full of pecans this year I will need to store them, I may not get any next year.
Storing My Pecans
Keeping my pecans in the freezer in glass gallon jars is how I store mine. I have some that are about 2 years old and they are still fresh. Therefore; by freezing them in the glass jars they stay fresher than in other containers I have found. Where do I get my jars you may ask? I ask local restaurants, they are usually throwing them away. I wash them well and sometimes, I’ll let them set out in the sun especially if it was a pickle jar just to get all the residual smells out!
When I have that first slice of pie I like to drink a cup of coffee with good creamer or maybe you would like a glass of fine wine. Some of the best wine I know of is found in my Fine Wine Club, and you will find out what wine pairs best with that pecan pie!
Rhonda’s Pecan Pie
Ingredients you will need:
Crust:
- 2 Cups all-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup well-chilled all-vegetable shortening ( you can use equal parts butter to shortening)
- 4 to 8 tablespoons of water
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
Filling:
- 3 Eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar (brown or white) I use light brown
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup white corn syrup
- 1 Cup of pecan halves or broken pecans
Pre-heat the over to 375 degrees. Blend flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Then Cut shortening into flour mixture with pastry blender until coarse crumbs are formed. Try not to over work. Stir in enough water just until dough holds together. Like I said you don’t want to over work the dough or it might turn out tough.
Divide the dough in half. Shape into two balls, chill dough about 30 min.
If you leave it in too long it will get a little too hard to roll out.
Roll out one dough ball to about 2 inches larger than the pie plate on a lightly floured surface. In order to pick up the dough, I gently fold it in half and then in half again. Lift up and place over the pie plate. I gently push out all the air bubbles between the pie plate and dough and then shape the edges how I want. Set this aside while making the filling.
Beat the eggs, sugar, salt, butter and syrup with a hand beater. Stir in the pecans. Pour into pie crust.
Bake until set, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm or refrigerate.
Checking Those Loaded Pecan Trees
It is Early November and I am preparing to pick up my pecans. We are having a wonderful harvest this year. As the picture above shows there are four pecans in a cluster. I rarely see four, usually three. First I will pick up tree limbs, pecan trees seem to lose limbs all year. Next I will cut the grass down really low and try to blow the leaves with the grass away from the tree. The pecans are heavy enough they usually don’t blow away.
I like to rake the pecans up in a pile, it is easier than bending over and over again. Then I just crawl around and gather them that way. I love doing this kind of work. No matter if it is berry picking or pecans. It is so much fun for me, I just love harvesting. I enjoy the cool weather and I usually leave my cell phone in the house. I sing and talk to God and sing. It is a refreshing time for me and nature does something special for the soul.
Sometimes we make an event out of pecan picking. When my children were young. We would go out for the whole day and picnic and pick up pecans. They would pickup a five gallon bucket of nuts to sell for Christmas money. A long time ago we would get about twenty-five dollars a bucket. I always kept mine to use in my baking. Those were fun memories for me, but for some reason my children really don’t like to pick them up anymore.