#recipe

TLDR: Yes to brag but my pecan pie is the best I’ve had. Recipe below.

Allergy info: Contains nuts, eggs, wheat/gluten, dairy.

Who here likes pecan pie? Here’s my recipe I’ve been improving over the years! No corn syrup required! (the original recipe called for light corn syrup but one day I was making it and realized I didn’t have any so I looked up a substitute and found out I can just make syrup with sugar and water and I haven’t looked back.) I’ll also include the crust recipe I use and bonus instructions for cookies you can make with the leftover pastry!

My husband has always loved pecan pie, and he’ll eat any pie you put in front of him, even store bought, but he agrees my pecan pie is the best. We were both really pleased when I swapped out the white sugar for brown, as it got rid of the eggy taste it had before. He is also obsessed with the pie crust cookies and once asked me to make pie crust JUST to make a ton of those cookies with no pie involved at all lol. The cookies are light and crunchy and sometimes puff up. If you don’t want to make them sweet and would rather make them savory, I’m sure you could brush them with olive oil instead of butter and add a little sprinkle of Italian seasoning, maybe a little grated parmesan and garlic powder. Make some nice savory crackers to have with soup or something.

Pecan pie

9 inch pie crust (instructions further down in the post)

3 eggs

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup butter, melted (5 tbsp + 1 tsp if you don’t know how much a third is in relation to a stick of butter or if you’re using a log of rolled butter or something)

2/3 cup brown sugar (pack it good in the measuring cup)

1 cup sugar syrup (I have not tried this yet with brown sugar but I’m sure it would be lovely. I typically use white or organic sugar for this, but the organic sugar will give the pie a matte look instead of shiny. I think this would also be amazing with maple syrup but I haven’t tried that yet either.)

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Make the sugar syrup by mixing ¼ cup water with 1 cup sugar in a small pot. Bring to a boil and boil it until it’s transparent and you can no longer see grains of sugar in it. Don’t worry about a candy thermometer or anything like that, you can do this by sight.

Remove from heat, scrape into a bowl, and put in the fridge to cool. You don’t want to put it in the pie while it’s boiling hot or it could cook the eggs.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. I prefer to use a hand mixer for this but if you don’t have one you can use a fork or whisk. Just make sure you beat them thoroughly. Once I didn’t beat them properly and there were pieces of solid egg white throughout the pie and it was awful.

Add the salt, melted butter, and brown sugar. Add the syrup once it’s cool enough to touch without burning yourself. Beat everything together.

Stir in the pecans.

Pour into your pie crust and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Cool before eating.

Crust

1 ¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco that you can buy in sticks, makes it easier. Honestly it might be better with actual butter but I haven’t tried that yet.)

Cold water

9 inch pie pan (I can only usually find like 8 ¾ inch pans but that’s okay)

Sift the dry ingredients.

Add the shortening and cut it into the flour using a fork or pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal.

Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time, tossing with a fork until you get a ball of dough.

Roll the dough outbuntil it’s big enough for your pie pan. I like to roll it on a piece of parchment paper. Makes it easier to lift and put in the pan. It should extend beyond the edges of the widest part of the pan by a couple of inches. If you’re using parchment, put the pan upside down in the middle of the pastry, then flip the whole thing over. Peel off the parchment and you’ll have your crust in the pan easy peasy.

Press into the pan, trim the overhanging edges, and use a fork to press down the crust around the rim.

If you’re making a double crust pie like apple or something similar, use 2 ¼ cup flour, ½ tsp salt, and 2/3 cup shortening. Cut the dough in half and roll out one half at a time.

Make cookies with leftover pie crust!

Leftover pie pastry (however much you’re left with after making your pie)

Butter(a tbsp or 2 will suffice)

Sugar

Cinnamon or other spices if desired

Roll out the dough very thin and cut out circles using a glass or cookie cutter.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and spices.

Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy your pie and cookies!

Here, have a soup recipe. This is pretty much vegetarian as it’s just a simple tofu and vegetable soup. I just threw it together one day with the stuff I had and it turned out so tasty I wrote it down to make it again. Note that the seasoning used here contains salt and this recipe also uses soy sauce, so maybe not the best thing if you have to watch your sodium intake.

Allergy info: Contains soy.

Mushrooms, sliced (I originally used 3 big ones and sliced them really thin since that’s all I had at the time but you can use more if you want. It also doesn’t matter what type of mushrooms. I originally made it with white mushrooms but I’ve also made it with baby bellas.)

10 baby carrots chopped (or 1 or 2 regular carrots)

4 large pieces of bokchoy (leaves separated from stalks and both chopped separately) (if you can’t find bokchoy then you can use some other green vegetable like spinach or kale or even seaweed if you can find it)

3 green onions/spring onions/scallions/whatever you call them, sliced(the whole thing, minus the root at the very tip)

Half a block of extra firm tofu cut in small pieces (I buy 14-16 ounce blocks, so you want maybe 7-8 ounces of tofu)

If you want to add other vegetables like celery or onion, feel free!

4 cups vegetable broth (I just used a box of store bought broth but if you know how to make your own and want to do that, go for it)

1 tbsp coconut oil (or whatever oil you prefer to cook with, though I wouldn’t recommend olive oil for this)

2 tsp this seasoning that you can make yourself with things you probably already have in your kitchen

Dash of toasted sesame oil

2 tsp soy sauce

Heat the oils and seasoning and soy sauce in your soup pot and add the tofu, carrots, mushrooms, and bokchoy stalks if you’re using bokchoy. Cook on medium low heat for 10 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and green onions(if you want you can just put the white part in the soup right now and use the green part for garnish when it’s done), bring to a boil, and simmer 30 minutes. Add the bokchoy leaves(or whatever green leafy veg you’re using) during the last few minutes of cooking.

All right, the people have spoken. Here’s my banana bread recipe! These are in American measurements so if you use metric you’ll have to convert it.

Allergy info: Contains wheat/gluten, eggs, dairy.

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3-5 very ripe bananas (for Max Banana Flavor, use 5 big ones, and they need to have lots of brown spots on them, or even be mostly brown) <obligatory KRIS GET THE BANANA goes here>

½ cup butter, melted

½ tsp salt (you can skip this if you’re using salted butter, or just leave it out altogether if you have issues with sodium, the salt isn’t that big a deal in this recipe)

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup chopped nuts if desired

Anything else you want like chocolate chips, raisins, ground flax seed(gives a nutty flavor without nuts!), cinnamon, whatever lol

Preheat oven up 350 F.

Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Sift the dry ingredients together.

Mash the bananas. They don’t have to be super smooth. Add to dry ingredients.

Beat the eggs for a minute or two, until they’re frothy. Add to mixture.

Add butter and mix well, but don’t overmix.

Stir in nuts or whatever else you want if desired.

Pour into loaf pan.

Bake for 50 minutes. Test with a toothpick or knife for doneness. If it’s not done, cover with foil and bake for an additional 15-25 minutes.

When it’s done, let it cool in the pan for a few minutes, then take it out and put it on a wire rack or a plate if you don’t have one. Have a slice while it’s hot. Put some butter on it if you want to. Trust me it’s amazing.

Enjoy your banana bread!