Strangely enough, I had never (before last week) made any kind of pecan pie. It's a staple for many autumn events, including Thanksgiving. Yet it's never been something that made its way to the dessert table in my household, so after reading a recipe I wanted to modify and test out in mini pies, I decided to give it a go (and will probably make again for my Thanksgiving do this year in Iceland — thinking of making several kinds of mini pies, e.g., pecan, apple and pumpkin, instead of several large pies).

I brought these to work the other day, gave many explanations about what pecans are and also surprised one colleague who had not before realized that I am American. Hmm. I always think it's pretty obvious, at least in the accent, but… kannski ekki.

First prepare your crust. The following recipe has measurements for making one, single crust. If you are making a double pie crust (with a bottom layer and then a crust on top, as is done with fruit pies), you would double this recipe. I doubled the recipe because I was rolling it out and cutting it to fit many small tins.

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter
3 tablespoons ice water

Sift flour and salt. Cut the butter into the flour until crumbly. Stir in enough cold water with a fork until it is just moistened. Form a ball and roll out on a floured surface. (For a regular pie, you would roll into a 12-inch circle for a 9-inch pie. For mini pies, just cut circles about the size of the outer edge of your tins). Fit the rounds into your mini tins and set aside.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup corn syrup (I used vit sirap)
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350F. First pour pecans into the bottom of the pie crusts. Pour the syrup over the top. (Pecans will rise to the top.)

Cover the tops and crusts lightly with foil and bake for about 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes. The filling should not be overly runny/jiggly, so continue baking until it is relatively solid.