Pecan pie may seem a little old school, but if you are a beginner pie maker looking to learn more, this simple classic melt-in-your-mouth recipe is for you. It’s so easy you pe-can make it last minute!

Filling

Lets start with the filling. This is the simplest pie filling you will make. I mixed sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon together. I used white sugar instead of brown because both the dark corn syrup and the brown sugar were a little too sweet, molasses-y, and heavy for my taste. But if you like that, feel free to use brown sugar instead of white.

Pie Crust

Next, is the pie crust. Pie crust can be a bit intimidating so you can use store bought dough if you are short on time, but I challenge you to make this easy, flakey, and buttery crust by hand. My recipe makes enough pie dough for 2 pies. Most pie dough recipes do because it’s hard to work with a small amount of dough. You can freeze the second pie dough to save for later, or make another pie!

The biggest debate in pie crust making is which fat to use. I used half butter and half shortening. Why shortening? With its high melting point, shortening helps create that flaky, tender, melt-in-your mouth crust. Why butter? A good crust needs a rich buttery flavor. Nothing beats butter. The other ingredients are flour, water, and salt. I tried making an egg crust, but it lost its buttery flavor and was less flakey.

The key to a perfect pie crust is making sure that all of your ingredients are cold at ALL TIMES. Not room temperature, not a little chilled. They need to be as cold as you can get them. Why? Keeping your pie dough as cold as possible helps prevent the fat from melting. If the butter melts inside the dough before baking, you lose the flakiness. When the lumps of fat melt in the oven as the pie bakes, their steam helps to separate the crust into multiple flaky layers. Warm fats will end in a hard, crunchy, and greasy crust instead of a nice tender flaky crust.

Okay, now that we got the ingredients down, let’s start baking!

Start with flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold fats. Use a pastry cutter (or two forks) to cut in the fats. A pastry cutter is ideal, and the easiest but most people don’t have one so the forks should work just fine. Cut in the fats until the mixture resembles coarse meal. You should have some larger pieces of butter and shortening when you’re done.

Next, add the ice water. Measure 1/2 cup of water in a cup and add ice. Stir it around and leave it for a few minutes. From that, measure 1/2 cup of water (since the ice has melted a bit!). Drizzle the cold water in 1 Tablespoon at a time, and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Do not add any more water than you need to. Stop adding water when the dough begins to form large clumps. I always use 1/2 cup of water.

Time for my *secret ingredient*  Use a dash of white vinegar in your pie dough. Dough over-workers have no fear! Vinegar helps prevent the formation of gluten which makes a tough crust!

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Using floured hands, fold the dough into itself until the flour is fully incorporated into the fats. Form the dough into a ball. The dough should come together easily and should not feel overly sticky. Cut the dough in half and flatten each half into 1-inch thick discs using your hands. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 5 days or freeze for another use.

After the dough has chilled, start preparing your pie.

When rolling out the crust, always use a gentle force. You are not mad at the crust, you are simply giving it a massage (unless you are an angry masseuse. If so, don’t think of it like that). Always start from the center and work your way out in all directions, turning the dough with your hands as you go.

Turn, roll, turn, roll. Roll the dough out to fit a 9-inch pie dish plus a little bigger to trim and crimp the edges. Drape the rolled out dough onto the pie dish with a rolling pin.

Trim and crimp.

Assembling

First fill the crust with your handy dandy raw pecans. Fill it so that there are 2-3 layers of pecans on top of each other. Then pour the filling into the pie dish.

Look at that sugary goodness 😍

I bake the pie for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. After the first 20 minutes of bake time, to prevent the edges from browning too quickly, I tent a piece of aluminum foil over the whole pie. Remove finished pie from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. The pie filling will settle as it cools. I like to serve mine with a scoop of ice-cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.