Directions

1. Using a food processor, pulse the flour, sea salt, and baking powder together to combine.

2. Add the butter and keep pulsing until the flour resembles wet sand with small pea size or smaller lumps of butter.

3. Pulse in one tablespoon of ice water at a time. At each spoon of water, check by opening the lid and trying to clump the mix together in your hand. If it’s still too dry, add another tablespoon of water and pulse more. If it’s just barely holding, move onto the next step.

4. To form the dough lay a big square of plastic wrap down onto your work surface and deposit the crumbly mixture into the center. Gather the corner and sides of the plastic and push the dough into the center and flatten to form a disk. This brings the dough together without overworking the mix or risking any melting from too much warm hand contact.

   

5. As you bring the plastic into the center to make the dough make sure to press out excess air.

6. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour or up to two days to give the dough time to rest and the flour and spices time to hydrate.

   

7. When ready to roll out your crust, take your dough out and let it come up to a rollable temperature.

8. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

9. Roll the dough into a disc (¼” thick) bigger than the base of the pie dish added with two times the height by at least 3 inches. Invert the disc carefully over the pie dish. Press the dough into the dish so that it lines all the corners of the dish.

10. Trim the edge with a 1” overlap. Fold the extra dough under to make a smooth edge, and then crimp. I find that crimping with a fork is easiest – just press down gently all around the edge with the tines.

11. Dock the dough using a fork. Poke a lot of little holes in the bottom of the crust and up the sides. This will help keep the crust from bubbling up in the oven.

12. Freeze the crust for 15 minutes or until firm.

13. Crumple a piece of parchment into a little ball. Then, uncrumple it and use it to line the frozen crust. Fill the parchment with dried beans (around 3#) or pie weights.

14. Bake until the edges of the crust are set and no longer shiny, about 30 minutes. Take the crust out of the oven. Carefully remove the parchment and beans/weights.

15. While the pie crust is baking, roast the butternut squash in the same oven for 20 minutes or until tender.

16. Add a handful of pecan halves to the butternut squash tray to toast for last 5-8 minutes.

17. Roughly the chop the remaining pecans and whisk them in a large bowl with the remaining ingredients until smooth.

18. Place the roasted squash and toasted pecans into the pie crust. Pour the filling over them slowly to keep the squash and nuts even.

19. Bake the pie for five minutes, then reduce the temp to 325°F and bake for 45-60 min or until the center feels firm.

20. Remove the pie and cool on a rack until room temperature.

21. VOILA !