Last night, we were invited by some of our very good American friends for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Our host said that for dessert, there would be pecan pie and pumpkin pie… and I thought it would be really, really tough to have to watch everyone eat those mouth-watering pies and not be able to have a bite!  So I said I’d try and make a gluten-free version of pecan pie.

So… this was my first ever pecan pie!  Even when I could eat gluten, I’d never made one from scratch!  But it turned out DELICIOUS – if I may say so myself 😉

I have a wonderful book: 50 Traditional Puddings, by Jenni Fleetwood  – it’s a collection of delicious traditional puddings, and I love it!  Jenni’s Mississippi pecan pie recipe is the one I used for inspiration for my gluten free version of the American classic.

I used a 24cm pie dish and here is what I did:

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 230 g gluten free flour (I used Schaer Mix C – Doves Farm self-raising flour would work great too – see products used)
• 100 g butter
• 75 g sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons cold water (I added these one by one, until I got the right consistency)
• a pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 175 g agave syrup (golden syrup would work fine too)
• 50 g brown sugar
• 50 g butter
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• half a teaspoon vanilla paste (you could use vanilla essence or vanilla sugar)
• 150 g pecan nuts

Method:

• Put the flour in a bowl with the butter, cut in cubes.
• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the sugar, pinch of salt and egg yolks and mix.
• Add the spoons of water one by one; mix well with your hands until you get a smooth dough.
• Cut a piece of baking paper and draw the circumference of the pie dish.
• Lightly flour the baking paper and roll the pastry dough in a circle.
• Keep the pastry on the baking paper and place the paper onto the pie dish.
• Put the pastry in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Here are a few pictures of the pastry making steps 🙂

 

• Preheat the oven at 200°C.
• Take the pastry out of the fridge and prick it lightly with a fork.
• Line it with another sheet of baking paper and fill it with dried baking beans or chickpeas, just like this:

• Bake for 10 minutes, then take out the dried beans and baking paper and bake for another 5 minutes.
• Take out of the oven and let it cool down a little.
• Place the agave syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan.
• Heat it all up gently, until the butter and sugar are melted.
• Take off the heat and add the vanilla and pecan nuts.
• Mix gently and pour the filling into the pastry case.
• Bake in the oven at 180°C for 35 minutes.  The filling must be set and dark golden brown.

 

 

In my book it says this pie can be enjoyed warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream – and that sounds really delicious to me!  We ate it cold, without ice cream, and it was wonderful too.  It is very filling, so you probably will only need one slice to feel very well fed.  We brought two slices back home and I was looking forward to a lovely pecan pie breakfast… but I woke up to find out that my husband had been unable to resist the temptation of a midnight feast… and had eaten both slices!  I’d be furious with him if I didn’t love him so much 😉

Hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as we did!