Pecan season in Texas: How sweet it is
Most pies are short on the Lone Star nut, but why? This recipe makes most of short season
My yard has five pecan trees. I’m lucky. Or cursed, depending on how you look at it. Lucky because processed storebought pecans are a mealy travesty,
and expensive. They bear little resemblance to the bounty that rains down on my house each pecan season, every “thud” promising another striped brown egg ready to be shelled.
Cursed because shell them you must. And, once shelled, either eat or store them quickly. Fresh Texas
pecans are among the most delicious native ingredients this region has to offer but, boy, do they have a tragically short shelf life. Outside their shells, the precious, delicate oils — the hallmark of exemplary pecans — go rancid at an alarming speed.
I freeze freshly shelled pecans in plastic freezer bags with the air squeezed out, where they’ll last through the off-season and make
appearances in granola, in chocolate chip cookies, atop pancakes. But there’s just no beating a fresh pecan in the midst of pecan season — which conveniently coincides with Thanksgiving, when I make Maximum Pecan Pie.
This recipe came about when I moved to my current house and became the caretaker of its five trees. I was delighted by the prospect of (free!) fresh pecans and couldn’t wait for fall; that delight quickly turned to panic when I found myself surrounded by 5-gallon buckets of unshelled nuts thanks to one of the most productive seasons in local memory. Suddenly pecans went in everything I cooked: salads, salsas, pecan-crusted chops, pecan-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
Thanksgiving approached, and I turned to my cookbooks for pie recipes, excited to use part of my windfall in one of the greatest dishes in all of pecandom. But recipe after recipe called for a singular cup of pecans. One measly cup?! That wasn’t going to make any kind of dent in my stash. Heck, my dog ate
more than a cup of pecans every afternoon, daintily shelling them and prying the meat loose with a single tooth before chomping it quickly and setting off to hunt for the next. One cup is laughable.
I mean, I get it. Pecans are pricey. Store-bought pecans, treated for easier shelling and partially
dried for longer shelf life, are often a disappointment. Having only experienced flabby store-bought pecans, one could be forgiven for misunderstanding that the glory of the pie is not its caramel filling but the toasty jewels that crown it. A cookbook author outside pecan country might look at a 1-cup pecan pie and
think it sufficient. Economical, even.
But we live in Texas. We have pecan trees, or access to pecan trees, or access to country-road pecan stands. I’ve seen whole pecans at the supermarket, for sale by the pound. So here’s my proposal: pecan pie, heavy on the pecans. Pecans in the crust, pecans in the
filling, mammoth pecan halves beaming in concentric circles on the surface like badges of honor.
The crust in my Maximum Pecan Pie incorporates ground pecans for a dough that is admittedly a bit more crumbly than a full flour pie crust but also more forgiving. If you have trouble moving it into the pie pan after you
roll it out, simply smash any cracks back together with your fingers. The filling uses Steen’s Syrup, a sugar-cane syrup from Louisiana that’s similar to molasses but a little lighter. This way it won’t overwhelm the flavor of the toasted pecans laced throughout the caramel and decorating the top.
And if you’ve read this far and think, “One cup of pecans isn’t enough? Heck, one pie isn’t even gonna cut it!” — never fear. I’m providing three variations on the classic pecan pie. One takes the traditional bourbon pecan pie a step further, adding Angostura bitters and a touch of orange zest for the Old Fashioned Pecan Pie. Love chocolate? The Mexican Hot Chocolate Pecan Pie adds a spicy warmth to sweet filling. The Ginger Coconut Pecan Pie incorporates coconut for texture and rounded flavor, and ginger to cut through all the sweetness.
But perhaps, like me, you’re a fan of the classic. Just traditional pecan pie. With extra pecans.