What To Do If Your Pecan Pie Filling Didn't Set
Few desserts are as identifiably Southern as pecan pie, and not just because of its emphatic sweetness. Replete with toasted nuts, butter, and brown sugar, pecan pies conjure thoughts of mild autumn afternoons spent on a wraparound porch swing. That is, if they're baked correctly! One potential risk of making a translucent custard, like pecan pie filling, is that it might not set properly, leaving you with an unappetizingly runny slice. Once you've noticed the problem, the only solution is to protect the crust and pop the pie back in the oven.
If you look in the oven and see that your pecan pie crust has turned a perfect golden brown, you'll instinctively want to take it out — even if the filling is too jiggly or even soupy. Here's the thing to remember: If you're filling hasn't set, it means the bottom of the pie crust isn't fully cooked, either. You can prevent the outer crust from further darkening (or even burning) by covering it with aluminum foil or — more attractively — with what's known as a pie ring or shield. As long as you were following a dependable recipe, your filling should finish setting in another ten to twenty minutes. Regardless of how good it smells, let the pie cool before cutting into it. We have to be adults about this.
There's a science to this art
Old-school pecan pie fillings typically consist of sugar (both brown and white sugar as well as optional corn syrup), butter, eggs, salt, vanilla extract, and pecan halves. Without an apparent structuring agent like flour or starch, how does this pie actually set? Well, like any good custard — through the gel structure created by the coagulation of egg proteins. This process can't happen too quickly, or else we'd wind up with a scrambled egg and pecan pie instead. Through a complex interaction, the sugar blocks the egg proteins from binding too quickly, while the salt gives them a positive charge, allowing them to bind more fully. And voila: a set pie filling!
If runny pecan pie fillings are a chronic problem, check your oven temperature. It may be running too cool and not be sufficiently hot for the custard magic to take place. Employ the pie-shield solution to save whatever dessert is already in there, and then get yourself a reliable oven thermometer to ensure proper preheating in the future. After all, consistency is everything in baking.