HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Now Treat Yourself to Praline Pecan Pumpkin Pie

What's good about this recipe? It's effectively Pecan pie sitting on top of pumpkiny goodness. You could add Pumpkin pie spices to the cheesecake if you wanted more of that flavor, but it's delightfully simple as the recipe is posted. Pure pumpkiny flavor!

Stolen from the cooks over at Southern Living, and adapted slightly to be more to my tastes (i.e. liquer added, sugars adjusted), I bring you:

PRALINE PECAN PUMPKIN PIE

Crust

• 13 rectangular graham crackers, crumbed (about 2 cups)
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans 
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Set oven to 325^o F.

Stir all of this together until it just holds when pressed; while you can do that mixing with a spoon, at some point it becomes more fun to smoosh it up with your hands.

Press it into a 9" springform pan, covering the bottom and up the sides by about 1.5 inches.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until the crust is slightly toasty and browned. While you wait, start mixing up your filling. Bring this out to cool a bit before pouring your filling inside.

Filling

• 4 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened (I used the Neufchâtel kind... don't do this to yourself; it's Halloween! Full-fat, baby!)
• 3/4 - 1 cup granulated sugar (I like less sweet, but I'm a weirdo)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp Praline Liqeur optional
• 4 large eggs 
• 15 oz canned pumpkin (or 1.5 cups)
• Juice from 1 lemon (or 2 tbs)

Electric Mixer:

Beat the crap out of the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and liquer. It should be fluffy as heck by the time you let up - like puffy little angel clouds that you are going to throw screaming into a burning hot oven in a few minutes. 

Next, mix in the eggs at a low speed. Add one at a time and blend just until incorporated. Scrape the sides as needed.

Add the pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix just until fully combined at a low-to-medium speed, scraping the sides to make sure everything is well blended.

Pour into the crust. It will be quite full.

Your oven is still on 325^o F? Good. Bake this bad boy for 1 hr and 10 minutes, or just until the center is set. Turn the oven off, but don't open the door - let it sit in there for 15 minutes. Take it out, put it on the rack, and cool it completely.

Now the hard part: refrigerate for 8 - 24 hours without eating it. It's painful, but you have to do it to let it set up properly. 

Is your sweet tooth killing you? Might as well use this time to make up your Praline Pecans... which, I might add, is a skill you'll want to develop just for snacking purposes.

Praline Pecans

• 1 cup pecan halves
• 1/8 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 TBS white sugar (superfine)

Stir together pecans and corn syrup. Sprinkle with sugar and stir again. Gently: you don't want too many broken up pecan pieces.

Praline Pecans: good anytime, not just on pie

Spread theme out in a jellyroll pan lined with parchment paper. You may want to spray it with vegetable oil cooking spray; I didn't, but I here it helps to loosen them off the paper when you're done.

Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until glaze bubbles slowly and thickens. The recipe from Southern Living said to stir every 3 minutes ... oops, I did not do that. I stirred them during the last minute, and they came out fine! The key here is really to smell out for burning sugar or over-toasted pecans. Nobody wants that.

Remove them to a wire rack and let them cool completely. You may want to use a spoon to CAREFULLY separate out the pieces so the don't try in clumps. You could also break them up after they are cooled, but that leads to broken pecan fragments.

Once they are cooled, save them to top your pie. If you stop to taste even one, you might eat half of them. That's just fair warning... in fact, why not go ahead and make yourself a double batch? It's Halloween. You've earned it.

Praline Sauce
Hey. Don't make this until you're about ready to serve up your pie. It cools into a thick caramel, so you need it warm and pourable.

• 5 TBS butter, unsalted
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 TBS Praline Liquer
• 1 tsp corn starch

Melt butter over low heat. At everything else, bring heat to medium, and whisk constantly. It's going to get bubbly: TURN THE HEAT DOWN OR REMOVE IT FROM THE HEAT IF IT STARTS TO OVERFLOW. I can show you scars that prove you don't want to mess around with melting, boiling sugar!

Once it's boiling, whisk constantly for another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let it cool to just about room temperature. Then, pour it on your cheesecake, sprinkle on some Praline Pecans, and serve it up!

Delicious Fall Flavored Cheesecake