{"id":684,"date":"2011-11-25T04:13:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T04:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/happy-thanksgiving-a-pecan-pie-to-peruse.html"},"modified":"2011-11-25T04:13:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T04:13:00","slug":"happy-thanksgiving-a-pecan-pie-to-peruse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/happy-thanksgiving-a-pecan-pie-to-peruse.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Thanksgiving: A Pecan Pie to Peruse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pecan pie anyone?  This one is extra special!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!<\/p>\n

Today the family headed over to the Yurack Family’s house.  Jim and Amy are friends from my dorm at Penn State way back when.  Amy lived across the hall my freshman year!  20 years ago!  The Yuracks have three kids, and let me tell you, when our two boys get together with the Yurack kids, happiness seems to abound.  They really do get along well, it’s nice to see the kids play good old fashioned games like hide and seek and tag.<\/p>\n

Amy’s family enjoys a gluten-free and dairy-free diet, so when we accepted her invitation to join her and her extended family for Thanksgiving, she and I discussed some gluten-free variations on classic Thanksgiving dishes. <\/p>\n

If you think about it, you can get away with quite a bit of the Thanksgiving dinner WITHOUT gluten or dairy, right?  Turkey, check.  Cranberry sauce, check.  Sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes, can<\/i> be check if you easily substitute soy milk or non-dairy creamer.  Amy made GF cornbread from scratch, which she made into the dressing, check!  Easy easy!<\/p>\n

Cooks all over have experimented and perfected other GF and dairy-free variations on Thanksgiving classics, such as this version of green bean casserole<\/a> that sounds really yummy!<\/p>\n

So I offered to try out a gluten-free\/dairy free pecan pie. <\/p>\n

Geeky fact: Did you know the pecan pie is one of a culinary class of pies called chess pies<\/b><\/a>?  A Lancaster County, PA classic, the shoo-fly pie<\/a>, also falls into this class.  So does the Derby pie<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

It was very yummy!  The crust is to DIE FOR!  BUT:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I wish I made more than the basic recipe for the crust.  <\/li>\n
  2. I wish I used more pecans so they didn’t all float to the top.<\/li>\n
  3. I wish I had taken the pie out of the oven sooner.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I should have taken it from the oven about 10 minutes sooner.  However, the critical flavors were exactly as they should have been: pie crust, pecans and syrup-y tastes abounded! <\/p>\n

    I’ll walk you through the steps…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    First, the pie crust.  I had some Gluten-Free Bisquick on hand, and a simple Google search yielded an easy recipe<\/a> (I only used the crust part of this recipe).  I pulsed the GF Bisquick with Earth Balance (Gluten free) Buttery Spread<\/a> and ice water in the Cuisinart.  Lard or shortening would work for the fat, too.  Ball it up in a zip-top bag and chill for 3+ hours.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Here is the cast of characters for the filling.  This is from a basic pecan pie recipe on the Karo syrup label<\/a>.  I used the Earth Balance spread in place of the butter.  Otherwise, everything else is the same.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    The recipe doesn’t specify one way or the other, so I chop 1\/2 of the pecans and leave the other half of them whole….well, halves…you know what I mean!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    As for the crust, I had to work VERY carefully to keep it together, I might have needed more water to hold it together, so I used the zip-top bag to keep pressing it together while I rolled it out.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    I cut open the bag, peeled back the top of the plastic, and then flipped it into the pie pan.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Like so!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    I think I needed more crust.  I did the best I could to press the crust up the sides the best I could.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Whisk together the filling ingredients (except for the pecans).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Toss the pecans into the crust and pour the filling on top.  But I noticed a couple things when I did this.  (1) These pecans floated to the top and (2) I wish I had more crust.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    It baked up really nicely in the oven!  Smelled SO GOOD!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    The verdict?  The crust was WONDERFUL!  Think about it — no gluten means the crust has no choice but to be flaky, right?  I just wish I made more.  As for the filling, those pecans really truly did float to the top and the rest of the filling baked into a cakey-textured filling.  It was tasty, but I wish I had more pecans, more crust, and had taken the pie out of the oven about 10 minutes sooner.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Pecan pie anyone?  This one is extra special! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today the family headed over to the Yurack Family’s house.  Jim and Amy are friends from my dorm at Penn State way back when.  Amy lived across the hall my freshman year!  20 years ago!  The Yuracks have three kids, and let me tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[184,8,54],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-b2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":683,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/the-sweet-potato-casserole.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":0},"title":"The Sweet Potato Casserole….","date":"24 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Let me start with a Dave Update: Dave's days are doing pretty well. \u00a0He's in a bit of a conundrum because as his leg muscles tighten up overnight, he awakens every morning with VERY uncomfortable leg and glute pains. \u00a0Within a few minutes of awakening, he's much improved. \u00a0But he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-VKa_4rbE6mc\/Ts2oNXkAzjI\/AAAAAAABbyM\/xj_3t_wFj9o\/s640\/IMG_6197.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1527,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/12\/thanksgiving-2012-in-new-york.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":1},"title":"Thanksgiving 2012 in New York","date":"01 December 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Our family got to spend last week with Dave's family in New York. Even though Jacob, Timmy and I get to go annually -- the boys spend some time up there -- I sometimes go up to pick them up from their visits...Dave hadn't been since 2009. We flew the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"family\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0129.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/11\/sweet-potatoes-where-have-you-been-all-my-life.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":2},"title":"Sweet Potatoes, Where Have You Been All My Life???","date":"21 November 09","format":false,"excerpt":"With Thanksgiving on our horizons -- despite the retail industry jumping straight into Christmas shopping -- I thought I'd share a Thanksgiving anecdote with you.Like many other things in my culinary world, it's Alton Brown's fault. For those who don't know, or hadn't noticed from many of the other recipes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/07\/4000-miles-part-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":3},"title":"4000 Mile Road Trip: Part 3","date":"27 July 10","format":false,"excerpt":"The next stop on our trip was our alma mater, Penn State University! The Department of Meteorology had a 75th Anniversary celebration weekend, and Dave and I took advantage of our time without the kids to have a good old fashioned party weekend! We took a scenic route from Niagara\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"road trip\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TE9k5clj1dI\/AAAAAAABGD0\/Hh8DMeXVQyY\/s640\/IMG_2993.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/sweet-potatoes-veggie-or-not-veggie-take-my-poll.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":4},"title":"Sweet Potatoes — Veggie or Not Veggie? Take My Poll!","date":"23 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently fell in love with sweet potatoes. \u00a0I wrote about it in 2009.Incidentally, Dave had a similar epiphany in 1997 with onions. \u00a0He went from hating them to loving them. \u00a0I tolerate them, but certainly don't love them. \u00a0He doesn't love sweet potatoes, so I guess we're even.Anyway, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/all-hail-the-whoopie-pie.html","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":5},"title":"All Hail the WHOOPIE PIE!","date":"11 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Whoopie WHAT???\"Whoopie Pie.A Pa Dutch treat I've been exposed to mainly from when I started seeing Dave. 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