Classic Pecan Pie

Make the dough. Combine the 180 g flour with the sugar and salt, then cut in the 120 g cold butter until pea-size bits remain. Work in the 60 ml ice-cold water, plus up to 15 ml more if the dough will not hold when pinched. Flatten, wrap and chill 1 h.

Roll and crimp. Roll the dough to a 30 cm round roughly 3 mm thick, lift it into the 23 cm pie dish and trim to a 1 cm overhang. Fold the edge under, crimp it high, and chill 30 min; a tall rim holds the generous filling.

Part-bake the shell. Heat the oven to 190 °C (170 °C fan). Prick the base, line with baking paper and beans and bake 20 min, then remove them and bake 5 min more until just dry and pale golden. Part-baking keeps the base from turning gummy under the syrupy filling.

Warm the syrup. Lower the oven to 150 °C (130 °C fan). Warm the brown sugar, syrup, cream, molasses, butter and salt in the saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves; do not let it boil. Cool 5 min so it will not scramble the yolks.

Combine the filling. Whisk the yolks in a bowl, then whisk in the warm syrup a little at a time, followed by the vanilla. Stir in the chopped pecans. Yolks alone give a richer, smoother set than whole eggs.

Bake low. Pour into the warm shell, arrange the pecan halves in neat rings over the top and bake 50-60 min. It is done when the edge is set, the centre wobbles only slightly and reads about 93 °C. A low oven keeps the sugary filling from puffing, cracking or boiling over.

Cool fully. Cool on the rack at least 4 h before cutting into 10, as the filling keeps setting as it cools. Keep covered at cool room temperature 1 day or chilled up to 4 days.