We couldn’t resist asking Gesine to share her pecan pie recipe with us. Check out the instructions for that crunchy, gooey Texas dessert, below.

Pecan Pie from Pie it Forward

⅛ batch Quick Puff Pastry (page 22 of Pie It Forward)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups pecan pieces, lightly toasted
1/2 cup pecan halves
Makes 1 9-inch pie

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough into a rough 11-inch circle. Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough, crimp the edges decoratively, and dock the bottom. Freeze the crust for 20 minutes. Line the crust with parchment, fill it with pie weights or dried beans, and bake it for 15 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment and bake the crust for 5 minutes more, or just until the bottom loses its raw-dough sheen. Do not let the crust brown. Set it aside.

2. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar has melted and all the lumps are gone. Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and salt, and stir until combined.

3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs. Whisking briskly, ladle about ½ cup of the hot sugar syrup into the eggs. This tempers the eggs, bringing their temperature closer to that of the hot syrup and preventing them from scrambling. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan, whisking all the while. Keep whisking until the eggs are completely integrated.

4. Stir in the pecan pieces and pour the mixture into the pie crust. Arrange the pecan halves decoratively on top of the filling. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or just until the filling has set.

Tagged: Gesine Bullock-Prado, Layne Lynch, Pecan Pie, Pie It Forward

Our April “Home Plates” package included “Last Meals” from Jim Lehrer (“no dessert or coffee” – with good reason), Willie Nelson, Jason Moran (who takes up for mac-and-cheese as a vegetable), Charles Butt, Karen Hughes and Governor Rick Perry (bing-cherry congealed salad with cream cheese and pecan topping – you go, Anita!).

But we actually had a few more that got left out due to space/layout constraints. Apologies to Red McCombs, T. Boone Pickens and Nolan Ryan – but we’re delighted to present their final suppers here.

Red McCombs, businessman
A boneless ribeye, cooked medium-rare; my wife Charline’s scalloped potatoes and onions; fried okra; homemade biscuits with lots of butter and honey from Briscoe Ranch, in Uvalde; pecan pie from Levi Goode Company, in Houston (pictured, left); and apple crumb pie from Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, in San Antonio.

T. Boone Pickens, entrepreneur
Johnny’s baby back ribs. Johnny Alexander worked with me for many years when I lived in Amarillo and was CEO of Mesa Petroleum. To make them:

Remove from oven and foil, reserving juice to serve with ribs later. Brown ribs on medium-hot coals until dry to the touch. Turn often to prevent burning.

Nolan Ryan, Rangers owner and team president
Garden fresh tossed salad, a small medium-rare filet, a baked sweet potato, black-eyed peas, sliced beefsteak tomatoes, and pecan pie with vanilla ice cream.

Y’all know what comes next – what would be your perfect (and perfectly gluttonous) last meal?

- Jason Cohen

Tagged: Cook Like a Texan, Fried Chicken, Nolan Ryan, Pecan Pie, Red McCombs, Ribeye, Rick Perry, T. Boone Pickens, Willie Nelson