Holiday Recipe One - Kara's Bourbon Pecan Pie and Cream Cheese pastry

Cream Cheese Pie crust: Make 1 day in advance

• 1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour (if you have Celiac substitute arrowroot flour)
•  8 tbsp salted sweet cream butter, cubed and frozen
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla 
• 4 oz cream cheese cut into 4 pieces
• 1 1/2 tbsp cold water
• 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

 Using a food processor blend the flour, and baking powder, for 10 seconds. Add the cream cheese and process until the flour looks mealy. Add the vanilla, cold water and vinegar. Process again to mix. Add the butter. Process until the butter has been rendered to pea size at largest.

Remove the mixture from the food processor and knead until becomes a homogeneous single ball and is slightly stretchy.  Form the ball into a disk and refrigerate overnight.

Lay the ball out onto a flat floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the disk into a large enough circle to slightly more than cover the inside of your pie tin. Trim the crust to fit the pie pan, and flute the edges lightly.

Bourbon Pecan Pie

This recipe makes a very rich, custard style pecan pie with a slightly darker flavor than most. If you can get your hands on fresh pecans this recipe will complement them extremely well. 

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup molasses (1/2 cup dark Karo can be substituted if you don't like molasses)
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 2 tablespoons good quality bourbon

Preheat the oven to 375°.

In a bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter until well mixed. Add eggs, molasses, bourbon and pecans and mix until all pecans are well coated. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell, and place on a heavy-duty cookie sheet. 

To prevent over browning of the pie crust, cover the edges with aluminum foil by following the instructions here: lay out a sheet of aluminum foil slightly larger than the diameter of the pie tin. Fold the aluminum foil into quarters and cut an arc out of the middle. Unfold the aluminum foil (the center will be missing in a circle) and place over the pie. Fold the foil over the edges.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil.

Lower the oven temperature to 350°, and continue to bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until pie is set.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack or trivet.