Pecan Pie a classic favorite

Pie Crust (Classic Crisco Crust)

Single Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
1/2 Tbs. white vinegar
3 to 6 Tbs. ice cold water

Double Crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cups cold Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
1 Tbs. white vinegar
4 to 8 Tbs. ice cold water

Deep Dish Double Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup cold Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
1 Tbs. white vinegar
6 to 10 Tbs. ice cold water

1. Add salt to flour and cut in Crisco using pastry cutter or hands.
2. Add vinegar and cold water and mix just until it all comes together. Do not overmix or you’ll have a tough pie crust.
3. Form dough into disc/discs and allow to rest for about 5 min.
4. Flour surface and rolling pin and roll dough out to diameter of pie pan.
5. Place in pie pan and score bottom of dough with fork to prevent bubbling.
6. Flute edges however you like.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 min. just to parbake for cooked pies or at 425 degrees for 15 minutes for premade pie fillings.

Pecan Pie Filling

1 cup Karo Corn Syrup, light or dark
3 eggs, lightly whipped
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) pecans
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

1. Mix all ingredients except pecans using whisk. Make sure the eggs are incorporated.
2. Place pecans in bottom of pie crust.
3. Pour filling over the pecans.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for an hour (45 min. if on convection setting).
   Center should spring back when touched.
5. Cool on wire rack until you can’t stand it anymore and must eat it.

The story

Why is there a freezer case in every store with frozen, ready-to-bake pies? Because pie making can be hard. Scratch-made is time consuming and doesn’t always turn out well. Shrunken crusts, gummy crusts, runny pies – anyone else had these things happen? Because I have – and sometimes all at once.
My Granny Ward (mom’s mom) was great at pie making even though she didn’t make them much. They were for special occasions as she really didn’t have time to spend a whole afternoon in the kitchen making crust and fillings. She had cotton to pick, a garden to tend, vegetables to can, clothes to wash, a house to clean, and kids to raise. But, she would make them from time to time and pecan pie was one her children loved. Well, 6 of the 8 liked pecan and 2 liked her “karo pie” (pecan pie without the pecans). Sometimes she made karo pie just because pecans were hard to come by.
She had a talent for what is now called multi-tasking. Then it was just getting things done. And somehow she would get it all done. I can’t imagine the workload she and women like her had. Hard manual labor and housework and gardening and cooking three meals a day on a wood-fired cook stove. And she did it all without griping. I wonder sometimes what she’d think of how much easier her grandchildren have it. I think she’d just be proud that her daughters and granddaughters married good men who do not expect their wives to move heaven and earth to please them. I think she’d be relieved we have an “easier row to hoe” in life. And I think she’d really love ready-made pie crust.