Category Archives: Baking

Macaron Monday 4.1.13 Thought of the Day

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No that’s not an April Fool’s joke. I have taken the liberty of changing Muffin Monday to Macaron Monday this week. I wanted to try a little something different for Easter this year, and with wild abandon and complete innocence I thought macarons were just the thing.

That’s macaron, not macaroon btw. A macaroon, as in coconut macaroon is an entirely different, if equally delicious, thing.

A macaron is…

a meringue-based cookie made with almond flour, egg whites, and granulated and powdered sugar, then filled with buttercream or fruit spread. The delicate treat has a crunchy exterior, and a weightless interior with a soft ending that’s almost nougat like in its chewiness. [Yumsugar.com]

Macarons can be made by the French, Italian or Swiss method. Now, usually I’d make anything the ITALIAN way when given a choice, but considering the fact that the Italian method includes boiling sugar…um… I went with ze French method for my macarons. (If you are interested in how the three methods vary you might want to CLICK HERE for the Macaron Master]

EQUIPMENT:

You’ve probably got all the equipment you need to make French macarons in your kitchen cabinets…

  • liquid measuring cups
  • dry measuring cups
  • food processor
  • sifter
  • medium mesh strainer
  • mixer
  • spatula
  • parchment paper
  • cookie trays
  • cooling racks
  • pastry bag with a #8 tip (or if you are cheap and inventive like me.. a ziplock bag with a 1/2″ cut off the corner.)
  • bowls

You’ll also need a template to slip under your parchment paper so you’ll know how big to make the macarons. (Here’s my fancy Easter colored template… feel free to print it out and use it.)

macaron template2

Macarons are best baked in a convection oven. But don’t despair you can still make them if your oven is of the conventional variety. Just take care with the timing.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 3/4 cups of almond flour

IMG_4609(You can find it at higher end food stores  — locally I found it at Wegmans — and cake supply shops)

  • 2 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
  • IMG_46051 cup of egg whites (it took 7 extra large eggs for me to get 1 cup of egg whites) room temperature

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  • 1/8 teaspoon of salt

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  • 3/4 cups of granulated sugar (superfine granulated if you can find it.) [Confession: I used powdered sugar here, and I didn’t have any superfine granulated, and I thought it would be better than regular sugar… next time I’ll use real sugar.]

Additional ingredients:

You’ll also need the following for dusting the macarons and for the filling:

  • 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 3 cups powdered sugar (additional)
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (additional)

DIRECTIONS:

Step one: Prepare the cookie sheets. Put your template on the cookie sheet, then put the parchment paper on top. trim the parchment paper to fit the sheet. I made three copies of my template and taped them together, so there was extra paper  at the end. That way I could easily pull it out from under the parchment paper once the macaron batter is  piped on to it.

Step two: In a food processor combine the powdered sugar and the almond flour.

Process until it is a fine powder. Sift it into a medium bowl.

Powder sugar on the left; almond flour on the right, before being processed

Powder sugar on the left; almond flour on the right, before being processed

Process until it is completely combined and is a fine powder.

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This is what it looks like once the two ingredients are mixed together.
I processed it in short pulses for about a minute. (Long enough for the dog to start barking at the noise.)

Using the sifter, sift it into a medium bowl.

Then sift it again through the mesh strainer into a large bowl.

IMG_4612Your goal is to get the almond flour mixture as fine as possible. You may have some small “pebbles” of almond flour that don’t go through the strainer. If this happens sift additional almond flour and powder sugar to compensate. I had  about 1/2 cup of almond flour pebbles (stuff that didn’t go through the mesh of the strainer) so I sifted an additional 1/4 of almond flour and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to compensate. (Save the almond flour pebbles.)

This is what the very small almond "pebbles" looked like. Put them aside for later.

This is what the very small almond “pebbles” looked like. They are smaller than couscous, but large enough that we’d have  lumpy macarons. (And no one likes lumpy macarons.)

Step Three: With an electric mixer beat the egg whites and salt. Start slowly and gradually increase the speed.

About a minute into beating the egg whites and salt. Use the whisk attachment on you mixer.

About a minute into beating the egg whites and salt. Use the whisk attachment on you mixer.

The whites will start to froth up and rise. Slowly add the granulated sugar and continue whipping until the mixture forms STIFF peaks and is firm and shiny.

Its so FLUFFY! The egg whites, salt and powdered sugar made nice stiff peaks (it I'd used granulated sugar it would have been glossy and probably have worked even better. Duh!)

It’s so FLUFFY! The egg whites, salt and powdered sugar made nice stiff peaks (if I’d used granulated sugar it would have been glossy and probably have worked even better. Duh!)

This takes a while, but patience is a virtue.

Step Four: Fold the egg white mixture into the dry mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently mix the ingredients, scraping from the bottom of the bowl up.

Folding the egg white mixture into the dry mixture.

Folding the egg white mixture into the dry mixture.

Don’t over mix, but be sure to get all the dry mixture incorporated into the egg white mixture.

Step Five: Pre heat the oven to 300 degrees for a convection oven (325 degrees for a conventional oven)

Step Six: Put 1/2 the batter into the pastry bag (or ziplock bag with the snipped corner — ZIP UP THE BAG). Hold the pastry bag vertically over the center of a template circle and gently squeeze until enough batter comes out to fill the diameter of the circle. Lift and gently twist. You aren’t trying to get a peak here, like you would for a meringue. Repeat until all the circles are filled. Carefully remove your template and do a second Tray.

First batch as I'm piping the batter onto the parchment. (You can see the template under the parchment paper. I slid that out before the cookies went into the oven.)

First batch as I’m piping the batter onto the parchment. (You can see the template under the parchment paper. I slid that out before the cookies went into the oven.)

I don’t have a picture of me actually piping the batter on the cookie trays. Sorry I didn’t have enough hands to hold the bag and the camera.

Give the tray a gentle tap on your work surface to get rid of bubbles and smooth out the tops of the macarons.

Step Seven: WAIT! I know its hard now that you can see the macarons actually taking shape, but you’ve got to wait 15 minutes before you put them in the oven. Waiting will give the macarons “legs” and will help you build character.

I KNOW you know what a time looks like. I'm putting this in to emphasis that you need to wait 15 minutes. Don't forget... seriously.

I KNOW you KNOW what a timer looks like. I’m putting this in to emphasis that you need to wait 15 minutes. Don’t forget… seriously.

Step Eight: Bake the macarons for 5 minutes. Open the oven door for 30 seconds — to let out steam– close the door and CONTINUE baking for another 10 minutes. Set up your cooling rack if you haven’t already done so. (HINT: make sure they are far out of reach of any cats or cockapoos.)

Step Nine: When the macarons have baked a total of 15 minutes take them out of the oven. CAREFULLY slide the parchment sheet off the cookie tin and onto the cooling rack and COOL completely.

You can now repeat steps Six-Nine with the second half of the batter. I dusted my second batch with cocoa and some of the almond pebbles I reserved earlier.

Second batch ready to go into the oven.

Second batch ready to go into the oven.

Second batch -- finished baking, ready to cool.

Second batch — finished baking, ready to cool.

Step Ten: While you are waiting for the macarons to cool you can start to make the filling. Filling for macarons can be as simple as jam or as complex as ganache. I chose homemade Chocolate Almond Buttercream Frosting. (See the ingredient listed above. (After cleaning your mixing bowl and whisk attachment) combine all the ingredients in the mixer and blend until smooth. Put into a clean pastry bag (or another ziplock bag with the corner snipped out).

Pair the macarons so they are close in shape and size. Turn half the macarons upside down (so the flat side is up). Pipe the frosting onto the flat side of the macaron. Top with its mate and give a gentle quarter turn. Repeat with the rest of the macarons.

Assembled macaroons.

Assembled plain macaroons.

And…

Finished Chocolate Almond macaron.

Finished Chocolate Almond macaron.

Results: I like to bake using a minimum of bowls and kitchen gadgets. I like simple (ish) recipes. I also like for the recipe to have at least a whiff of nutritional value. Macarons fit none of those baking preferences.  These took lots of time, lots of money, and lots of effort to make. The recipe only yielded 2 dozen filled French macarons. But they are light as a feather and delightfully delicious.  And all my tasters wanted to know when I would make the next batch, so I guess they were a hit.

They reminded Mary B of meringues, but better because of the filling. She “really enjoyed them.”

Mike R. commented that “The crunch of the initial sensation on the teeth is met soon after by the yielding into a second layer of heavenly sweetness just inside the delicate outer layers.  As the palate then becomes aware of the fleshy interior of the “cookie”, it is surprised by the soft and flavorful filling (in this case chocolate buttercream).  The trio soon starts to meld and melt together, though not completely, giving a variety of textures and tastes to explore. ” He’s tried store bought macarons and found them to be “overly-dried almost like delicate styrofoam. I’ve also tasted plain fresh macarons from bakeries in New York City, but none come close to freshly baked deliciousness of these cookie gems…..”

Jackie R gave them an A+, saying “they were delicious and had just enough ‘bite and chew’ to be substantial, yet sweet and light enough to make me wiggle my toes a little.”

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I was inspired by Cecile Cannone’s Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the Macaron Cafe. It is a well written, well illustrated little book that will get you on your way to proper macaroning.


Muffin Monday! Date Zucchini Orange Muffins

So… I thought I’d indulge in another of my passions — BAKING — one day a week. What do you think? Unless I hear some serious uproar in protest I proclaim Mondays “Muffin Monday” in all the land. You may have noticed the amended bit at of the legal portion of my Home Page… please note that although the recipes I’ll be highlighting in Muffin Monday worked brilliantly in my kitchen they may not work for you. I’m not calling you a bad cook or any thing, but SOMETHING might happen… and since I’m not there watching you add the ingredients one at time or setting the temperature I can’t be responsible for the end results. Having said that… give it a go and see if you like it.  If you do please let me know.

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Date Zucchini Orange Muffins

CookbookCupcakePan

CookbookCupcakePan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of chopped dates

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  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

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  • 1 1/4 cup of very hot water
  • 3/4 cups of butter (1 1/2 sticks) melted and slightly cooled

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  • 2/3 cup Tuvia sugar substitute (or 1 cup sugar)

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  • 2 eggs

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  • 1 orange (peeled and sectioned)

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  • 1 medium zucchini grated

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  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

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  • 2 cups flour

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  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

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  • 1/2 cup Ovaltine Chocolate Malt mix (optional)

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Directions:

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Step One: Put Dates and Baking Soda into the hot water and stir. Set aside to cool.

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Step Two: Put the peeled/sectioned Orange in a blender …

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…add the Tuvia (or sugar),  the Eggs…

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…and melted (liquid but cooled) Butter and blend.

…Add the grated Zucchini and Vanilla and blend.

…Add the Date mixture and blend.

Step Three: In a bowl mix the Flour, Ovaltine, and Salt.

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Slowly incorporate the liquid from the blender into the dry ingredients in the bowl.

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Prepare the muffin cups (this recipe will make about 18 muffins.) Put “muffin pants” into the tin and spray lightly with cooking spray.

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Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups. They should be about 2/3rds of the way full.

Place into hot oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until tops are brown and a tooth pick stuck into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Let cool and enjoy.

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Thought of the Day 11.11.12 Stanley Tucci

“People wear shorts to the Broadway theater. There should be a law against that.”
–Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci was born on this day in Peekskill, New York in 1960. He is 52 years old.

His mom, Joan, was a writer and secretary and his father, Stanly, Sr., was an art teacher. His grandparents immigrated from Calabria Italy. He enjoyed playing soccer and baseball in school, and he acted in school plays. He went to SUNY Purchase where he got his BFA from the school’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts.

Tucci’s twin loves are acting and food — something he indulged in Big Night and Julie & Julia. [My personal favorite pair of Tucci films.]

He’s made 93 movies and television shows in his career thus far. [For a complete breakdown of his film credits go to his IMDb page  HERE] Starting 1985 with a bit part in Prizzi’s Honor and spanning nearly three decades to his role as Caeser Flickerman in the upcoming the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Tucci has been a very busy man.

He’s a terrific collaborative actor and has been the backbone of many a movie. Think the Devil Wears Prada, orJulie and Julia for that matter,  in both he plays second fiddle to Meryl Streep. He never tries to out shine his co-star, but his performance is a little gem of acting goodness.

Movie still from Conspiracy [Image courtesy HBO]

Tucci also has the ability to take a one-dimensional character and breath so much life into it that he steals the picture. He’s done it with plenty of villains — most chillingly as Adolf Eichmann in Conspiracy and George Harvey in The Lovely Bones.

Still from Big Night.

When filming Big Night –which Tucci co-wrote, co-directed and starred in — he and his mother produced a short cook book called Cucina & Famiglia.  He worked with her again to put out The Tucci Cookbook“The Tucci Cookbook,” a paean to Italian cooking — and to Italian-American families…” [nytimes.com] was published in October. It’s a tribute to Tucci’s Italian grandmother who taught him his kitchen skills.

“The Tucci Cookbook,” in which the recipes are interlaced with reminiscences from two generations of Tuccis, suggests the meaty, saucy ways in which a love of food can bind and govern a family. That love has certainly shaped Stanley Tucci’s life and career, in which cooking and eating seem to be the glues for every relationship, the sidebars to every adventure, the grace notes of every achievement. [Ibid]

Still from Julie & Julia

When he was cast as Paul Child in Julie & Julia he called up Meryl Streep and encouraged her to research their roles by cooking together.

Mr. Tucci… is a proud and avid cook, and at his home in northern Westchester County, … his arsenal of equipment trumps what many restaurants have on hand. In addition to the six burners and acres of counter space in his kitchen, there’s a mammoth stone pizza oven, made in Italy, on the patio outside, along with a gas grill as large as a Fiat, a free-standing paella pan the size of a wading pool, and a coffinlike wood-and-aluminum roasting box, called a Caja China, that can accommodate up to 100 pounds of meat. He likes his dinner parties populous and his friends carnivorous.[Ibid]
You can also find him on Vine Talk reruns on PBS where he host a team of experts and celebrities as they talk casually (but knowledgeably) about everything from Cabernet to Chardonnay.

 


Thought of the Day 9.27.12 Clementine Paddleford

“Beer is the Danish national drink, and the Danish national weakness is another beer. ”

“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where you backbone ought to be.”
Clementine Paddleford

Clementine Paddleford was born on this day in Stockdale (near Manhattan), Kansas in 1898. She grew up with a strong connection to the land and people who tilled it.

Clementine Paddleford as a girl. [Image courtesy: K-State Libraries]

She rode a horse to school, where she learned to love writing at an early age. She loved food too. She learned to cook by her mother’s side in their Kansas kitchen.

In a memoir called “A Flower for My Mother,” she wrote of fresh-picked corn and strawberries, ice cream made from new-fallen snow. [A Life in the Culinary Front Lines, by R.W. Apple, Jr, 11/30/05 The New York Times]

At 15 she worked for the Manhattan (Kansas) Daily Chronicle writing “personals” — She would borrow the family car and go down to the meet the 4 A.M. train for Kansas City and report  on which locals got on the train. It wasn’t journalism at its finest, but it was her first paid gig. She went to Kansas State Agriculture College and graduated in 1921 with a degree in Industrial Journalism. Industrial Journalism was a “boys club,” most women took home economics, and Paddleford was a trailblazer.

She moved from Manhattan, Kansas to Manhattan, New York and attended the Columbia School of Journalism at night while she worked reviewing books for Administration (a business magazine) and the New York Sun during the day. She specifically requested lengthy, more difficult, scientific books because, although she only earned $3 or $4 for a review, she could usually sell the book for $5 to a dealer. She also wrote women’s features for the New York Sun and the New  York Telegram

Later Paddleford became the woman’s editor for Fame and Fireside working there until 1929. When a change of management led to her leaving the publication she began to write on a freelance basis, mostly about food.

At home writing. [Image courtesy: The New School]

At 34 she was hospitalized for a malignant tumor on her larynx. She had the growth removed, along with her vocal chords. The operation left her with a breathing tube, and she had to re-learn how to talk. Her voice was never the same and she declined to speak in public after the operation. As for the breathing tube? She took it in stride.

She disguised the tube with a velvet choker that became part of her trademarked look and continued with her work. [the Found Recipe Box]

She worked as a food editor at the New York Herald-Tribune for 30 years from 1935-1966 bringing her signature editorial point of view to reviews and recipes. She made…

forty dollars a week to write six half-columns of advice to New York housewives on buying and eating. The job sounded like a cinch to Paddleford. Half a column a day shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. And forty dollars was bread and butter. But what with her conscientiousness and her growing interest in the job, it wasn’t long before she was putting in as much as twelve hours a day combing food markets and writing the column. [Clementine Paddleford: her Passion is Food, by Josef Israels II, K-State Libraries; ]

She also did a weekly column at This Week Magazine and a monthly column for Gourmet Magazine. At her peak in the 1950’s and 1960’s she had 12 million readers.

Prior to Paddleford, food was treated in a dry academic manner. A recipe was just a list of numbers… x amount of flour… z amount of time in the oven… Paddleford brought the  food life. She told a story around the recipe.

Before Paddleford, newspaper food sections were dull primers on home economy. But she changed all of that, composing her own brand of sassy, unerringly authoritative prose designed to celebrate regional home cooking…[from the book description of Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford]

She did the same when reviewing a restaurant or exploring the local cuisine …

We opened the mail one morning to learn a barrel of frogs’ legs… was coming our way. They came. We gave half of them away and cooked the rest for an important little dinner for three. The very thought of frogs’ legs sent memories reaching back to our first interest in the “greenies”—as we used to call frogs. Then we children were the hunters along the banks of a creek out Kansas way. We were small savages with clubs who caught froggies with a wallop over their noggins, took them home, and ate the shanks, a choice morsel. We’d wind up with only a few mouthfuls after a couple of hours’ work, but it seemed worth the effort. [Food Flashes, Clementine Paddleford, March 1951, Gourmet Magazine]

Paddleford was a food explorer too. She loved to go to remote places and discover the local cuisine. She learned to fly so she could get to places more quickly. She even had dinner on a nuclear submarine to see what the sailors had in the mess hall. (She came away from the encounter with a recipe for hamburger pie for 100 and one for brownies for 80.)

Well, I couldn’t write about Clementine Paddleford without sharing one of her recipes. Here is Hurry-Up Marble Cake

Hurry-Up Marble Cake

Here’s an old-time marble cake with a new-time trick, one double quick–no splitting the batter. Use your spatula as a wand–marbleize by magic. Pour the batter into layer-cake pans, drizzle over syrup made without cooking, using a ready-prepared cocoa. Swirl the spatula through the layers and dark chocolate spirals will show when the cake’s cut. The same method can be used to marbleize the frosting. Another day bake the marble loaf.

Double Marble Cake

1/2 cup instant sweet milk cocoa
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 cup milk

Combine cocoa and water; stir until smooth. Set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Combine shortening and vanilla. Gradually add sugar and cream well. Add egg yolks and egg, one at a time, and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with milk. Pour into 2 9-inch round cake pans lined with wax paper. Drizzle cocoa mixture back and forth over both layers. With a spatula or knife, “swirl” through batter to marbleize. Bake at 325°F. 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans, peel off paper. Cool thoroughly. Frost with marble frosting. Yield: 1 9-inch layer cake.

Marble Frosting

Combine 1/2 cup instant sweet milk cocoa with 2 tablespoons boiling water and stir until smooth; set aside. Combine 2 egg whites, 1/3 cup water, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 2 teaspoons white corn syrup (or substitute 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar) and beat constantly over boiling water with rotary beater for 7 minutes, or until frosting holds its shape. Remove from water and beat for 2 minutes. Pour cocoa mixture over top of frosting in double boiler; do not stir. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cake. Frosting will become marbleized when spread.

Quick Marble Loaf Cake

Combine 1/2 cup instant sweet milk cocoa with 1 1/2 tablespoons milk; stir until smooth, set aside. Sift together 2 cups sifted cake flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Combine 1/2 cup shortening and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar and cream well. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Add dry ingredients alternately with 3/4 cup milk. Fold in chocolate mixture gently several times to marbleize batter. Pour into a 10x5x3-inch pan lined with wax paper. Bake at 350°F. for 1 hour. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, peel off paper and cool cake thoroughly. Yield: 1 loaf cake. [recipecurio.com]


Mike & Rita make a Glorious Pecan Pie

This morning I stopped my buddy Mike’s house to do some baking since my oven is on the fritz. I had some rhubarb and Mike had some pecans… you know what that means… pies!

Since Mike has never made a blog I thought this would be a good tutorial for him. So here goes…

Pie Ready to Bake

Mike’s friend Gloria is from the South and KNOWs all about Pecans, so her recipe was perfect for our first venture into Pecan Pies !

Gloria’s Pecan Pie Recipe

  • 3 eggs beaten
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • dash salt
  • 1 cup dark corn syrup
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • mix all together
  • add 1 cup pecan halves or pieces

pour into unbaked pie shell.  Bake 350  for 50 mins.  pie shell can be frozen or refrigerator crust your choice.

Step By Step Pictures

First we add the eggs to the sugar so we can cream them together. The graininess of the sugar breaks up the membranes from inside the eggs and the eggs help liquify the sugar. This makes a smooth consistency that makes it easy to add the remaining liquid ingredients.

Cracking the 3 eggs

Adding the 2/3 cup of sugar

… and the sugar

And whisk together with a whisk

Beat It (MJ)

Add a dash of salt.  (Yeah, we didn’t take a picture of that, we guessed y’all know how to do a dash of salt.)

Next comes the Dark Corn Syrup — we use Karo Syrup. That’s K-ROW syrup for y’all from the South who are following along.

Adding the Kara

Add the melted butter

Pouring the Melted Butter into mixture

Adding the Pecans…

“Natural Pecans” into the mix (as though there was another kind??)

Whisk and Mix together (“Whix”)

All the ingredients in one big bowl

Ready to fill ‘er up

Into the mighty pie shell at last !!!

The recipe makes one 9 inch pie and we made the recipe twice… (shhhh, the pics are from either batch)… After all, we’ve got college and high school kids to feed!

To paraphrase Julia Child … don’t keep opening the oven door to check on your baked goods. You just let the heat out and cause the temperature to go up and down. So look though the window in the oven door and time your pie carefully.

And here are the two beauties hot out of the oven …

Ahhhh, wish you could smell over the internet, don’t you?
Our pie was too hot to slice, but we found this awesome pie image on SouthernVegan.WordPress.com (You should go visit them right now.)

And now Mikey has learned how to make a great pecan pie, AND he’s also learned how to use our pictures and wordpress to make a nice blog about our Journey Together this morning 🙂    [Rita’s note: SWEET!]