Pumpkin Pecan Pie

This is the pie everyone expects us to bring with us during the holidays, and I am supposed to be baking one right now.

This year it made appearances as an actual pie, mini pies, and tarts.

For the smaller sizes, I knocked 5 minutes off the higher temperature baking and began checking for doneness every 5 minutes starting at 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie crust -- you can cheat and use a packaged Pillsbury crust or (gasp!) a frozen one, or you can make one from scratch. Honestly, your mother-in-law is the only one who will notice the difference, and she will loudly offer you her great-grandmother's pie crust recipe while your husband helpfully bobs his head and makes happy sighing noises. Not that this has ever happened to me, of course.

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar, divided

1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 16-oz. can of pumpkin (or 2 cups)

1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake piecrust for 6 minutes; set aside to cool. Increase heat to 425 F.

Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, pecans, butter and vanilla; spread on bottom of piecrust.

Beat cream cheese and remaining brown sugar until smooth; add pumpkin and eggs and continue beating at medium speed. Add spices and flour and continue to beat until blended.

Spoon mixture over pecan mixture and smooth top.

Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes or until pie is set.

It goes well with whipped cream.

And bourbon. Lots of bourbon.

There's reasons I always have a big smile for my mother-in-law.