In this podcast Paula makes a Pecan Pie for her brother Bubba to wish him luck on his move out West! Paula shows us how to make the perfect pie crust to make sure this pecan pie really comes together. You can follow the recipe below!
Pie Crust
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening
12 tablespoons cold and cubed butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour.
2. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn’t get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. 3. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.
4. When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough.
5. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape.
6. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.
https://www.pauladeen.com/recipe/paulas-perfect-pie-crust/
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0:00
hey friends welcome to what's cooking
0:02
with Paula Deen today you know
0:05
southerners are pretty good at making
0:10
crusts and pastries I mean we're not
0:13
like Paris friends but we've always felt
0:17
like we could make a Dern good biscuit
0:20
and a dadgum good pie crust and
0:27
the ingredient that we sometimes like to
0:31
make it with is probably not hop on the
0:34
food chain
0:36
but it's very important but a real flaky
0:42
crust and that's lard and you can buy
0:47
this from the grocery store I've just
0:50
got one tip for you make sure it's fresh
0:53
because sometimes I think it'll sit on
0:56
the shelf and it'll almost get a rancid
0:59
smell to it so I'm not above unwrapping
1:03
it and smelling it right there in the
1:04
grocery store yo oh
1:06
but I'm telling you on special occasions
1:11
you use lard for those biscuits and that
1:13
pie crust and
1:15
your gums are gonna be knocking yo teeth
1:19
back in your head
1:22
so watch y'all is good
1:35
what you don't worry what's your name
1:37
I'm making a pecan pie did you know my
1:40
brother is moving to the show-me-state
1:44
Missouri
1:46
I'm trying to make him a pecan pies
1:49
they're going away okay well maybe you
1:51
think you need just enough up I'm just
1:54
gonna make the one pie
1:56
I make
1:59
[Applause]
2:01
yeah just for one tiny DeSales well okay
2:06
we'll make Michael fine yeah I guess
2:09
make Mike
2:16
good morning friends I'm so glad that
2:19
y'all are here with me today because
2:21
to be quite honest I'm in kind of a
2:24
melancholy mood today I'm happy and then
2:28
I'm also sad because my little brother
2:31
Bubba is moving out west today and so
2:36
I'm making him a pecan pie to take with
2:39
him today on his journey so anyway I got
2:43
to get started on this pie or he's not
2:45
gonna wait around too much longer for me
2:47
to bake this so he can take it with him
2:49
so today I thought maybe we could talk
2:52
about pie crust pies in general don't
2:56
hold up like a cake wood or something
2:58
like that so it's very very hard to find
3:02
a good homemade pie especially with a
3:04
good pie crust so I want to
3:08
tell y'all today my experience with pies
3:11
and help you get comfortable making your
3:15
own pie crust and it really is simple in
3:19
there several methods on that you can
3:21
use to make a pie crust you can do it in
3:23
a food processor or you can do it like
3:26
I'm gonna do it with just by hand today
3:28
and I'm gonna start with a one layer
3:31
crust because like I said I'm making the
3:34
pecan pie so I'm gonna use 1 and 1/4 a
3:37
cup of plain flour
3:40
and in that bowl it goes and I've got
3:45
about a little shy of 1/4 of a teaspoon
3:48
of salt and
3:50
about let's see it's a tablespoon and a
3:53
half of sugar y'all so we're just gonna
4:00
quickly
4:03
I've got 1/4 of a cup of lard here so
4:09
you know if you dare try but try the
4:12
lard I think you'll be happy with the
4:15
results that you get and I'm just gonna
4:17
kind of take my hands and just start
4:20
breaking it up like that and when we get
4:23
through I hope that this will be like a
4:24
coarse meal we're gonna want to work it
4:28
quickly because if you work it too much
4:30
you're gonna wind up with a very tough
4:33
dough and we don't want that we want it
4:36
nice and flaky like Julia Child used to
4:39
make the crust for her tarts we want it
4:43
really really flaky and light all right
4:46
I'm got me 3 tablespoons of butter and
4:50
then I'm gonna use my pastry cutter and
4:53
cut this in you know there's very few
4:56
ingredients and a pie crust it's flour a
5:00
little sugar salt
5:02
butter or lard and
5:05
that's about it yet all right so I'm
5:07
gonna take my pastry blender and I'm
5:10
just gonna work that butter and that
5:12
lard into that flour and like I said I
5:15
want it to look like a kind of a coarse
5:17
meal by the time I get through with it
5:20
and you want to make sure that your
5:24
butter is nice nice and cold
5:28
all right so you'll want to take your
5:30
knife and make sure that butter doesn't
5:34
stay in there all right now it's time
5:37
for the ice water and for a single crust
5:40
pie I'm probably gonna need like 1/4 of
5:44
a cup maybe maybe not quite so much and
5:48
you know I think I'm gonna get up I
5:50
think I'm gonna get us a spoon or ice
5:54
cream scoop will work great and
5:57
let's see I've gotten started off I've
5:59
got like three quarters of a cup here
6:01
and you want to make sure that that
6:03
water is ice-cold so I'm going to start
6:07
with about a half a scoop and just
6:09
dribble that in
6:12
slowly but like I said you wanna you
6:16
want to work this pretty quick you don't
6:18
want to keep touching it's like a
6:20
biscuit you kind of want to put just
6:22
enough ice water but that dough to stick
6:25
together okay I think that's I think
6:30
that's gonna get it
6:32
see how that dough is sticking together
6:34
y'all and of course when I go to roll it
6:37
out I'll make sure my surface is floured
6:41
good
6:42
okay so all I'm gonna do at this point
6:45
y'all is I'm gonna wrap this in plastic
6:48
wrap more stick it and refrigerator and
6:51
I'm gonna let it sit for about 30
6:53
minutes so that lard in that butter you
6:57
can get hard again and then we're gonna
7:00
put it on our cutting board and this is
7:04
this is one of my cutting boards and I
7:05
just love it because it has the
7:09
different size pie crust so you can see
7:13
that my measurements give you the
7:16
outline for an 8 inch or 9 inch or a 10
7:19
inch pie or like a little individual pie
7:22
this is like a six inch right here so
7:25
it's just that easy y'all maybe not as
7:27
easy as you know go into the store and
7:31
find one already pre-made but there's
7:34
gonna be a lot of self-satisfaction
7:36
when I get through and plus I hope it's
7:39
gonna taste
7:41
better than a store-bought crust so I'll
7:44
meet y'all back here in a little while
7:46
and we'll keep working on this pecan pie
7:50
because to me I'm making it for a very
7:52
very special person
7:54
[Music]
7:57
alright our pie crust should be nice and
8:01
cold
8:02
so it was in the refrigerator about
8:05
thirty minutes and so far so good y'all
8:10
it looks like it's gonna work now I'm
8:13
gonna roll this out to a nine inch
8:16
to fit a nine inch pie plate and I'm
8:20
gonna put me some flour out here I want
8:23
to make sure I flour my rolling pin real
8:26
good alright so here we here we go oh
8:31
it's hard y'all and I hope it'll be good
8:33
and flaky
8:36
alright now I've got so much flour on
8:38
here I don't know if I'm gonna be able
8:39
to see my 9-inch thirtieth
8:43
and I kind of like to turn my my crust
8:47
over just a time or two all right let's
8:51
see if we can get this thing done
8:54
I'm gonna bring my
8:57
plate up here and just slip that just
9:01
like that over into my pie plate and I
9:04
want to make sure that that crust
9:07
touches the whole entire bottom insides
9:11
of my pie plate and you'll have to just
9:14
lift up your crust so the weight of your
9:17
crust won't pull it back out alright so
9:21
at this point I think I'm gonna
9:24
work with scissors
9:27
rather than a knife and I'm just gonna
9:32
cut some of it off because I'm gonna
9:34
tuck the excess
9:36
underneath the edges so I'll have enough
9:40
to kind of crimp and try to make it
9:42
pretty
9:43
sometimes I run out of patience and it's
9:46
not as pretty as I would like it but I'm
9:49
just gonna take that excess and tuck it
9:52
under and that way I'm raising up the
9:55
sides of the crust and I said by tucking
9:59
that extra dough under y'all that's
10:02
gonna give me something to to crimp or
10:05
to fork so here we go we tucking and
10:08
rolling I don't feel like my pie crust
10:11
has to be slapped picture-perfect
10:14
it doesn't bother me at all because I'm
10:18
perfectly happy for people to know that
10:22
it's a homemade crust and it's not a
10:26
store-bought so it's not gonna be
10:29
picture-perfect but I hope it'll taste
10:32
picture-perfect all you do is make an
10:37
indention and just go around just like
10:40
that and that's very simple
10:42
but at the same time it's kind of pretty
10:46
and it's easy peasy and you see the
10:51
reasoning of me tucking that pie crust
10:54
underneath because you really need that
10:58
extra crust to do your crimping with and
11:01
you'll need to kind of keep dipping your
11:05
you're the butt of your knife
11:08
into the flour so your dough won't stick
11:12
to your knife oh oh look what I just did
11:15
I hit my fame but I can fix it you know
11:19
in cooking there's not many things that
11:21
you can't fix I'm very very happy with
11:25
the way our crust turned out today and
11:27
you can see how easy and quick
11:29
the the most aggravating part of the
11:33
whole thing is having to sit and wait
11:35
that 30 minutes to
11:38
let your dough chill but by chilling it
11:42
it worked so beautifully for me now to
11:48
make our pecan pie filling it is like
11:51
the simplest of simple pies to make your
11:55
pecan pie hands down is the easiest pie
11:58
out there to make so when we come back
12:01
I'm gonna show you how just how quick
12:03
we're gonna get that pie thrown together
12:05
and we're gonna see what we've got here
12:08
with the leftover dough
12:11
so don't go anywhere hopefully the best
12:13
is yet to come the
12:16
space that you live in really affects
12:19
the way you feel so my first
12:22
recommendation is start by updating your
12:25
window treatments with Smith & Noble
12:27
Smith & Nobles beautiful handcrafted
12:29
blinds drapes shades and shutters are
12:32
custom made just for you and they offer
12:34
different service options to fit your
12:37
needs to get started today contact Smith
12:40
& Noble to get my special limited time
12:42
offer
12:43
25% off on your window treatments plus
12:47
free design consultation
12:48
create a space that you're gonna love
12:52
but details about my special offer go to
12:55
Smith & noble.com slash Halla that Smith
12:59
& noble.com / Apollo or call one eight
13:03
hundred sixty five nine thirty three
13:06
hundred that's one eight hundred six
13:08
five nine thirty three hundred
13:13
all right I told John that a pecan pie
13:17
is the easiest pie in the world to make
13:20
and I'm thinking to show y'all just how
13:22
easy it is I'm gonna start with three
13:25
eggs and I forgot that I had stuck some
13:29
butter
13:31
in the microwave I've got 1/4 of a cup
13:35
of melted butter
13:37
and I'm not gonna pull out a mix or
13:40
anything I'm just gonna beat all this up
13:43
by hand
13:45
I'm gonna add my fourths of a cup of
13:48
melted butter
13:50
mix that up and then I'm gonna add
13:55
3/4 of a cup of
13:57
brown sugar
14:00
just mix mix mix
14:04
and I'm gonna add a teaspoon or two of
14:08
vanilla flavoring
14:11
[Music]
14:15
and I'm just gonna eyeball this because
14:18
in my world if you use too much vanilla
14:22
flavoring then that's about perfect
14:27
alright and now I'm gonna add
14:30
one cup of
14:33
dark corn syrup so our filling for pecan
14:38
pie is ready I've got some beautiful
14:41
pecans and
14:43
naturally I got these from Stan the
14:46
Candy Man because I'm kind of particular
14:48
about my pecans because I was born and
14:52
raised in the pecan capital of the world
14:55
which is Albany Georgia all right so
15:00
most people would mix their nuts in with
15:04
their syrup I don't do it that way I
15:07
want to know that every bite of this pie
15:10
is gonna have a nut and in order for me
15:13
to know that I have to put those nuts
15:16
out like that so I'll know that that's
15:19
completely covered
15:21
now all we have to do
15:24
is pour our custard
15:28
into our pie shell
15:32
did y'all just hear max he's groaning
15:36
you know it's very very funny today you
15:38
can tell that I'm not cooking anything
15:41
that really interests them you know I
15:44
don't have any meat going and look at
15:48
them
15:48
they're not paying me a bit of attention
15:51
they're all passed out in their favorite
15:54
spot in the house now if I was cooking
15:57
meat up here I'd have three dogs
16:00
practically on the counter
16:03
[Music]
16:06
so I like to
16:10
bake my pies on a baking sheet you know
16:16
I don't think we have to worry about it
16:17
running over cuz I still could have made
16:21
a little bit more custard than we'd have
16:22
been fine
16:24
alright so in the oven this goes
16:27
350 degrees now I'm gonna cook that for
16:30
about 45 to 50 minutes I'll be checking
16:34
it to make sure my edges don't get too
16:37
dark and
16:38
when it's ready I want it to jiggle just
16:41
a very slight little bit in the center
16:45
and it'll be ready we'll let it cool and
16:48
then we'll slice it and
16:50
hopefully I have cooked it just perfect
16:53
so it'll stay together and hold its
16:55
shape and I have to say my mother and my
17:01
grandmother didn't make pies so I've had
17:03
to try to learn from others along the
17:06
way and just learn through trial and
17:09
error but you know it's just like
17:10
anything else shown the more you do it
17:12
the better you get at it so practice
17:16
practice practice and everybody wins
17:26
as y'all can see I have taken my pie the
17:29
oven and I'm just gonna be very truthful
17:32
with y'all as I've always tried to be
17:35
we don't do swaps on this cooking show I
17:39
only cook a dish one time and this is
17:43
our one time so the pie gods really
17:47
blessed me today y'all this is one
17:51
beautiful pie it might be the prettiest
17:54
pie crust that I've ever done and I was
17:57
so I was really trying to extra hard to
17:59
make it pretty for y'all today and
18:01
you know I'm seven years older than my
18:04
brother I told you I was baking this for
18:07
him to to carry on his big moving trip
18:10
and I'm doing that that's what I'm doing
18:15
but I think is this old sister I should
18:20
have a little bitty piece
18:22
just to make sure it's good enough for
18:24
him that's it that's the ticket
18:27
to make sure it's good enough for him so
18:31
I've taken it out and I've let it cool
18:33
and you can see when it came out the
18:37
oven it had a very slight jiggle but now
18:41
it's firmed up so I'm just gonna cut one
18:44
little like sliver piece out of it
18:48
now some people when they make their
18:51
pecan pies they'll use the chopped nuts
18:56
on their pie but this really could cool
19:01
some more but it'll cool on Bubba's tree
19:03
up and it actually cuts prettier if it's
19:07
chopped nuts but I love the looks of the
19:11
whole pecans so
19:13
they don't want to chop quite as pretty
19:16
and I hope I don't mess it up too too
19:18
much by slipping me out a little piece
19:21
but he'll be back home in two weeks for
19:23
visit but I just don't want to wait two
19:26
weeks to find out if it's any good so
19:29
when y'all see me make something on this
19:31
show
19:32
[Music]
19:33
there is not a swap coming from the back
19:37
it's a one meal deal around here
19:42
I
19:44
just really like doing my own cooking
19:47
and
19:48
as you can see this is just beautiful
19:52
it's still very very warm in the center
19:56
but after it completely cools
19:59
it'll it'll set up nicely
20:02
but see that custard in there
20:05
to me that's the best part
20:08
that buttery custard and of course pecan
20:13
pie you know calls for a little ice
20:16
cream
20:18
so look how pretty and yellow this ice
20:21
cream is
20:22
this is the real deal - yo
20:26
so I like to serve something along with
20:31
my pecan pies either a little fresh
20:34
whipped cream or a little ice cream is
20:38
even better so
20:40
Bubba should be coming in to give me my
20:44
last hug very soon so I want to get this
20:47
wrapped up so he really won't know that
20:49
I've taken any out until he gets on the
20:52
road tonight no tansy
20:55
mmm
20:57
[Music]
20:58
it's good enough for him
21:03
mmm might be the best one I've ever
21:06
tasted
21:09
[Music]
21:11
YUM I
21:13
hope our
21:16
time shared together today may be made
21:19
you feel a little bit more confident
21:21
about making your own pie crust if you
21:23
don't do it already
21:24
it's really quite simple and like I said
21:29
the more you do stuff the better you get
21:32
at it
21:33
so
21:34
this will be on the website I really do
21:38
want you to try this recipe because it's
21:41
delicious it's delicious
21:44
so until next time friends I hope life
21:48
is sweet for you and I sure do wish my
21:51
dear brother a
21:53
sweet sweet new adventure for him
21:57
I'll see y'all next time
22:03
well what y'all think you know once in a
22:07
while I like to splurge and use lard but
22:12
I don't do it every day but you know
22:14
what I'd be willing to bet you that back
22:17
in the day that was all the women made
22:21
their biscuits with was large was lard
22:27
because butter probably wasn't that
22:31
plentiful for them unless they lived on
22:34
a farm with cows and milk the cows and
22:36
made the butter
22:38
but you know always say God made the cow
22:41
and the cow made the butter which makes
22:43
it all right by me well you know what
22:47
God also made that lard so there you go
22:50
that's my story and I'm sticking to it
22:52
today
22:53
my friends
22:55
the space that you live in really
22:58
affects the way you feel so my first
23:01
recommendation is start by updating your
23:04
window treatments with Smith & Noble
23:07
Smith & Nobles beautiful handcrafted
23:09
blinds drapes shades and shutters are
23:11
custom made just for you and they offer
23:14
different service options to fit your
23:16
needs to get started today contact Smith
23:19
& Noble to get my special limited time
23:22
offer
23:23
25% off on your window treatments plus
23:26
free design consultation
23:28
create a space that you're gonna love
23:31
but details about my special offer go to
23:34
Smith & noble.com slash Paula that Smith
23:38
& noble.com slash Paula or call one
23:42
eight hundred six five nine
23:45
3300 that's one eight hundred six five
23:48
nine
23:49
3300
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