Sandies Suck! (Just for Making Pie Crust) : Pecan Sandie Pie Crust

I like to mix it up with regards to the pie crusts I use. It gets boring to make the same one all the time, plus I really only like "traditional" pie crust for baked fruit pies AND it has been way too hot in my apartment for the last month to roll out a standard butter and flour crust. So most recently I decided to try out making crust with pecan sandies.

I have made my own shortbread crust from scratch a bunch of times, and it is good but I made it so many times I got really bored with it. Plus the packaged Sandies: Pecan Sortbread have a nice silky texture that is different from how my shortbread crust comes out AND the pecans are already added.

I was under the impression you could make a crust with just about any cookie you like, using a standard recipe similar to graham cracker crust recipes. This was a misconception.

I tried this first with last weeks fresh peach pie. The recipe was simple, 1 1/4 cup crushed pecan sandies + 1/3 cup butter. The mix was VERY buttery but I wasn't too worried so I pushed it into the pan and baked at 375 for about 10 minutes. This is what came out of the oven:

It shrunk!

I was able to make it usable by gently pushing it up up the sides of the pie dish while it was still hot and soft and scraping away the extra-brown edges that got left behind at the top. It was usable but certainly not the perfection I crave.

However, I also feel strongly about not being defeated by a little recipe and wasn't about to let one near failure stop me. I was making a chocolate pudding pie this week and thought pecan sandies would go well with chocolate pudding. So I tried again, this time with a somewhat different recipe calling for a slightly larger crumb to butter ratio: 1 1/2 cups cookie crumbs to 1/4 cup butter baked the same way (this also produced a much better quantity or crust crumble for filling the 9" pie pan I have been using recently). The crumble was still very moist, but I went ahead and packed it into my pie pan.

Additionally, I got the (not so) brilliant idea to try weighting it down in the hopes this would prevent shrinkage. I lined the unbaked pie shell with aluminum foil and dumped some dry beans inside. After about 8 minutes I thought it would probably be safe to take this out and let the inside brown. Except that when I took it out I found the crust had STILL shrunk. Worse, it had caused the butter to migrate out of the cookies, leaving behind a thin layer of melted butter across the entire floor of the crust. It was pretty gross. Luckily it baked away when I stuck it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes. I performed the same spreading out procedure, and luckily the crust was again usable although not ideal.

The moral of the story: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. There are plenty of cookies perfectly suited to making this kind of crust, pecan sandies just don't seem to be one of them.

If you want a shortbread crust, make your own. This is my recipe (and it works great):

• 1.5 cup flour
  
• 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
  
• 3/4 cup butter
  

1. Stir together flour and powdered sugar (If your heart is set on the pecans, just throw in a couple tablespoons of finely chopped ones here. I haven't tried it yet, but can't imagine it will be a problem.)

2. Cut in butter until cornmeal size

3. Press firmly into pie pan

4. Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes, until golden

Note: This recipe fills a 9.5" pan, for a 9" or smaller 2/3 of the recipe will be enough.

To Sweeten Or Not To Sweeten? Graham Cracker Crust

Just two days ago I finally made my first graham cracker crust. They are easy, I just never had the need to do it before.

Searching thru recipes I found that there is one major decision to make when choosing a recipe- to add sugar or not.

I decided on sugar, and quite a lot of it. The recipe I picked said to use 1/4 cup, but I confused it with another recipe I looked at that said 1/3 cup so thats how much sugar went into my crust. And some of the reviewers had already said 1/4 cup was too much!

But here is what I realized: YOU HAVE TO MATCH THE CRUST TO THE PIE.

I used this crust for Key Lime Pie (Posting on that to come). With a tart filling, the sweet crust was delicious. But, if I were using this for a sweeter pie like chocolate or peanut butter, this would have been way too much sugar and maybe even no sugar would be the best choice.

So here is the graham cracker pie crust recipe I will stick with (if you can call it a recipe).

1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (this was a little under half a box)

1/3 cup melted butter*

Mix together butter and crumbs

Taste- if it doesn't seem sweet enough for your pie add a little sugar and mix well

Taste- if it still doesn't seem sweet enough add a little more...

You get the idea

*(a trusted source said this should be salted butter but since I really only use butter for making pie I only keep unsalted around, so I just threw in a healthy pinch of salt and it came together fine)

Pack into pie pan (this will be enough crust for a deep pan). If your not using a deep pan and have leftovers I recommend getting out a spoon and eating them, they are quite tasty.

Bake ~7 min at 375.