Bourbon Pecan Pâté Recipe 445

Steps:

• Make crust:
• Put a baking sheet on middle rack of oven and preheat to 375°F. Mix crust ingredients in mixer at low speed until a dough forms, 5 to 7 minutes. Press 1/3 cup dough onto bottom and up side of each tart pan, making sides slightly thicker. Chill.
• Make filling:
• Whisk together eggs, sugar, butter, corn syrups, bourbon, vanilla, and salt.
• Divide pecans among tarts, then add filling. Bake on hot baking sheet in oven until filling is just set and crust is golden-brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on racks completely before removing sides of pans.

Steps:

• In a skillet brown the chopped pecans in butter until golden. Remove pecans; set aside. These will be used to garnish the pate. Add chicken livers, onion, and garlic to skillet. Cook over medium heat until livers are brown and onion is tender. Stir in apple juice, paprika, salt, pepper, and allspice. Reduce heat. Cover; simmer for 3 minutes. Combine chicken broth and gelatin; let stand for 5 minutes to soften. Stir broth mixture into hot mixture; stir to dissolve gelatin. Remove from heat; stir in bourbon and let the mixture cool slightly. In a blender container or food processor bowl carefully blend or process about half of the liver mixture at a time until smooth. Stir in chopped pecans. Pour into a lightly oiled 2 1/2 to 3 cup mold. Cover and chill for 6 hours or until firm or up to 24 hours. Unmold onto platter; garnish with parsley and pecan halves*. Serve with apple and/or pear wedges and crackers or bread. Makes 16 appetizer servings. * To help unmold the pate, place the mold in a bowl or sink of warm water just until the edges are loosened from the mold. Invert.

Steps:

• Making the pie dough ( makes 1 double-crust "or" 2 single-crust 9 to 10-in. pies) - In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.
• With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tbsp at a time.
• Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator, and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.
• Now -- making the pie -- On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie tin, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang under evenly. Using a paring knife, carefully cut out leaves from scraps of dough. Gently score leaves with the back of the knife to create veins. Place leaves on a baking sheet. Transfer lined pie tin and leaves to refrigerator. chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, 4 whole eggs, corn syrup, maple syrup, bourbon, and vanilla. Fold in half the pecan halves. Pour filling into pie shell; arrange remaining pecan halves on top of pie.
• Score the outer rim of pie. Beat 1 egg yolk, and brush over hatch marks. Adhere the leaves to the dough in a decorative pattern. Chill the pie for 30 minutes. Mix 2 tablespoons heavy cream with remaining egg yolk. Brush the egg glaze over the leaves, and transfer pie to the oven.
• Bake 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until a knife tip comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, corn syrups, butter, bourbon, vanilla and salt until well blended.
• Prick the sides and bottom of the pie shell with a fork at 1/2-inch intervals. Spread the pecans on the bottom and pour the mixture over them. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until just set around the edges but still slightly loose in the center. (It will continue to set as it cools.)
• Place on a rack to cool slightly.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. In a large saucepan, combine butter, sugar and corn syrup. Cook over medium-low heat until sugar is dissolved; cool slightly. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, bourbon, vanilla and salt; slowly whisk in sugar mixture. Stir in pecans; pour into crust., Place on a baking sheet. Bake until a knife inserted in center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Steps:

• Add the flour, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a food processor, or a large bowl if using a pastry blender. Pulse or whisk until the mixture is combined.
• Add the butter and pulse until most of the butter is broken into pea-size pieces, about 15 pulses. There will be some larger pieces of butter, and that's a good thing. If using a pastry blender, blend the butter until it's pea size.
• Add the cold water and vinegar to a cup and pour the liquid over the crumbly flour-butter mixture. Pulse until it looks like tiny clumps (like space dots ice cream), and there are no large pockets of flour. If using a pastry blender, use a large rubber spatula for this step, folding until no large pockets of flour remain.
• Tip the mixture onto your work surface and use a light touch to gather the dough together and pat it down until it's about 1 inch thick. Fold the dough in half, then pat it back down to a 1-inch block. Repeat twice, then pat and gather the dough into 2 round discs, smoothing the sides so they aren't dry and crumbly. Wrap the discs tightly in plastic and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 days.
• When ready to par-bake the pie crust, preheat oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disc of pie dough to an 11-inch circle, and transfer it to a 9-inch pie plate. Fit the dough into the pie plate, trimming any edge overhang that's greater than 1 inch.
• Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork. Fit a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper on the crust, leaving enough overhang so that you use the edges to lift it out later. (I like to use foil because I can easily cover the edges to prevent them from cooking too quickly, but parchment paper works, too.) Fill with pie weights or dried beans so the dough holds its shape and doesn't puff up.
• Bake on the middle rack until the bottom of the crust is dried out, about 20 minutes. You know it's ready if, when you lift out the foil or parchment, it doesn't stick. Carefully remove the pie crust from the oven by sliding it out and holding it from the bottom, so that you don't disturb the sides or edges of the crust (best to use two oven mitts). Carefully remove the parchment paper or foil and the pie weights or beans. Set the pan on a cooling rack for the crust to cool.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, cornmeal, vanilla, and salt.
• Combine the cane syrup, sugars, and bourbon in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon or whisk to stir continually. When the syrup starts to boil, cook an additional 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
• Use one hand to continually whisk the egg mixture and use the other hand to slowly pour one-third of the hot syrup into the egg mixture. Continually whisking tempers the eggs so they can be heated without scrambling. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the syrup, continuing to whisk constantly. Stir in the pecans and set aside for 30 minutes to let the syrup mixture cool.
• If you've turned the oven off, preheat to 350° and place a rack in the middle of the oven.
• When the syrup is at room temperature, pour it into the par-baked pie crust and bake until the center of the pie is just set and doesn't jiggle, and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes.
• Remove the pie from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours so the filling can firm up. Slice and serve.