somehow it’s november. and november means pie.

the gluten-free ratio rally is here to help with any and all fear and trepidation regarding the mandatory thanksgiving pie table. i was torn between a chocolate meringue and this monster of a pecan pie.

… and pecan pie it is! with a dose of chocolate. and bourbon. (for those of you who voted for chocolate meringue on my facebook page, no worries. the month’s not over yet! everyone should win when it comes to pie.)

i first experienced this pie when i was working in the oxmoor house test kitchen years ago. i say experience, because some foods are so over-the-top amazing that you can’t just say you ate it. i’ve always remembered this pie. so, i couldn’t not develop a gluten-free version and share it with you. dare i say i even improved on a winner… the original did not include chocolate or bourbon. it seemed only fitting that it did.

i have a confession though… given the high volume of recipes being tested in my kitchen right now, this was my one and only shot. (plus, let’s be honest… with a pie this big i may just run out of people to feed it to if i had to make more than one.) the crust came together beautifully, it baked effortlessly in the oven with no leaks or oven mess, it cooked into a gorgeous, impressive tower of a pie, i took the first shots of it with my camera… and then i cut into it.

no, it didn’t leak everywhere. it was nicely firmed up and set… but the crust was in the center of the pie. completely cooked, in the center. it is an inside-out pecan pie.

i have a couple of thoughts about this.

there’s a lot of filling in this pie. and it’s not completely uncommon to have leaks if you have any cracks in your dough. when transferring my dough to the spring-form pan, it did tear in a couple of places. it has no gluten… so a tender crust is typical. i patched it, but maybe not as aggressively as i should have. my guess is because of the weight of the huge volume of egg mixture, it seeped under the crust through a tear, baking on the outside of the bottom crust.

the original recipe called for a cream cheese crust. i’m wondering if the fat and protein of the cream cheese would add additional binding and strength. maybe? or maybe if i’d blind baked the crust a bit prior to filling it?

so i do have several questions about this pie, but there is one thing that i know…

it still tastes really good.

and there is another thing i know, and that is the crust does work. i’ve used it several times for pot pies, poptarts, galettes and pies. and don’t let the photo fool you… i promise the ribbon isn’t holding it all together. i just liked the way it looks. i’ll admit, i have a thing for grosgrain.

the crust is really what we’re talking about today…

ruhlman’s ratio for a pate brisee (which is a basic buttery pastry crust) is one of his easiest…

3 parts flour : 2 parts butter : 1 part ice water.

this is the exact ratio i use too. and this is what it looks like…

350 grams (about 2 1/2 cups) flour : 1 cup butter : 1/2 cup ice water.