This is one of the recipes from my grandmother’s recipe box.  Growing up in rural Ohio, the county fair was an annual event not to be missed.  Old men talked about tractors and horses and how to get more milk out their cows.  The women entered their best garden vegetables to be judged, and the truly brave submitted their best culinary masterpieces.  Jams, jellies, preserves, pies, bread, cakes…. you get the idea.  And then there was fair food.  This was long before deep fried Twinkies sold out of some traveling trailer.  This was real food served at the grange stand.  Proud farm wives, grandmothers and daughters baking in the summer heat.  And the grange pecan pie was legendary.  Don’t ask me how grandma got the recipe (not sure the statute of limitations has expired on that crime).  But she did, and now I have her recipes so I’m sharing it with the whole wide world.  I did use my standard Crisco Pie Crust recipe (#employee) instead of hers.

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Ingredients

• Pie Crust
  • 2 Cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 Cup Crisco shortening
  • 4-8 Tbsp cold water
• Pie Filling
  • 3/4 Cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 Cup light corn syrup
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 large eggs (slightly beaten)
  • 1 1/2 Cups chopped pecans

Directions

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1. To make the crust, put the flour, salt and Crisco in a large bowl.  Use a pastry mixer or large fork to cut in the shortening (fancy kitchen speak for mixing the flour with the shortening).  If this is your first pie crust, check out the Crisco instructional video here.
2. Add the water 1 Tbsp at a time while gently stirring the mixture.  Add just enough water so that the dough holds together, but just barely.  You don’t want it too wet. 
3. Divide the dough in half and form into balls.  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.  This step is key for a flexible crust that rolls out perfectly.
4. After resting, roll out one of the balls to form the crust.  You want it to be a little larger in diameter than your pie pan.  I use a silicone mat for this as the crust can become fragile when rolled out.  Once the diameter of the crust is around 5 inches I put a piece of wax paper over the dough and continue rolling it out.  When the crust is the right size, I flip over the mat and peel it off, leaving the crust on the wax paper.  That makes it easier to position the crust in the pie plate.  Then just peel the paper off and seat the crust in the pie plate.

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1. Pre-Heat your oven to 425 degrees
2. To make the filling mix sugar, corn syrup, salt, flour, vanilla and butter in a large bowl.
3. Stir in eggs
4. Last, add the pecans and stir well to thoroughly coat all nuts in the mixture.
5. Pour this into the prepared pie crust and place in the 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
6. At 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes.  The pie is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

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Now give it a try and let me know how it goes!  I love to see pics and comments from those that try a recipe.

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