Recipes

Ginger and Spice Pecan Pie

By: The Local Palate

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Joy Wilson—also known as Joy the Baker—blends warm winter spices, a zing of fresh ginger, and buttery pecans to make a unique and delicious spice pecan pie for the holiday season. The dish embodies earthy notes of fall with the sweetness of the holidays—the perfect balance of sweetness and spice! Serve at your next holiday gathering plain, with a dollop of whipped cream, or with a refreshing scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

recipe

yields

Serves 6

For the crust:

1½ cups flour, plus more for rolling
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup cold butter, cubed
⅓ cup cold buttermilk

For the filling:

1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1½ cups light corn syrup
1 tablespoon molasses
¾ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup butter
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground clove
1 heaping cup chopped pecans
¼ cup diced crystallized ginger

steps

Make the crust:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and sugar. Using your fingers or potato masher, quickly work butter into flour mixture. Create a well in mixture and pour in buttermilk. Using a fork, bring dough together, adding more buttermilk if necessary to moisten. Avoid making mixture wet.
Turn out dough on lightly floured work surface. Gently knead into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out to 1⁄8-inch thickness. Transfer to pie pan. Trim dough to be nearly even with pan, then fold edges under and crimp with fingers or fork. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours.

Make the filling:

In a medium bowl, whisk together sugars, corn syrup, molasses, salt, eggs and yolk, and vanilla until well combined. Mixture should be thick and syrupy. In a small saucepan, melt butter, then remove from heat. Whisk in spices. Pour butter over filling mixture. Whisk well.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place pie pan on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle pecans and crystallized ginger in pie shell. Place in oven and pour in filling mixture. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until filling is puffed and jiggles slightly, another 45-55 minutes. Cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Date Published: 11.15.23