Pecan pie from pauline

I made this tasty pecan pie for a thanks giving dinner over the weekend.

I started regretting the decision of making homemade pastry when it was looking messy and I couldn't fill my pie dish, but it was extremely satisfying having so many people choosing to eat my pie rather than the pies with ready made pastries!

You will need plain flour, pecans, caster sugar, eggs, golden syrup, vanilla essence and unsalted butter

For the pastry you will need: 225g flour, 110g sugar, 110g butter, 4 egg yolks.

For the pie filling you will need: 3 eggs, 110g sugar, 4 tablespoons golden syrup, 50g butter, a few drops vanilla extract, 175g pecan halves.

For the pastry first mix together the flour and sugar, make a well.

Here comes the tricky part - you will need 4 egg yolks (yellow part). Crack the egg and open in two over the sink so that the egg white falls into the sink. Move the yolk from one shell to the other to remove as much egg white as possible.

Put your four egg yolks in a bowl.

Mix.

Pour the mixed egg yolk into the centre well.

Mix.

Cut the butter into cubes and add to the bowl.

Mix with your hands by grabbing the flour and sugar mixture and pressing your fingers into the butter cubes and rubbing your fingers together. Repeat this until there are no more chunks of butter.

Make a ball by pressing the pastry together as if making a snow ball.

Put your pastry ball in a closed bag in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius.

Wet your pie dish and place some greaseproof paper in the dish.

The greaseproof paper serves three purposes: great if your dish is too big and you don't have enough pastry, makes taking the pie out later much easier, and less washing up to do!

If you have a rolling pin now would be a great time to use it. I don't have one so I placed the ball of pastry in the middle of the dish and pressed down with my hands until it flattened.

Pinch the edges of the pastry so that the pie filling will not spill out.

For the pie filling melt the butter in a pan over a low heat.

Mix the eggs in a bowl.

When the butter is melted leave to cool slightly (so that it does not cook the egg).

Mix in the sugar, golden syrup and a few drops vanilla extract.

Pour in and mix the melted butter.

Add the pecan halves.

Pour the pie filling into the pastry until it reaches below the edges. Stop before it spills - there may be pastry filling left over that is not needed.

Put in the oven for 40 minutes. (My oven was on at 185 degrees celcius and my pie was slightly burnt so I have suggested you cook yours at 175 degrees celcius)

Serve and enjoy!