As the leader of celebrated Atlanta pastry programs including Alma Cocina, Ecco, La Tavola Trattoria, Lure and South City Kitchen, Eric Wolitzky has the unique position of developing a variety of dishes for a diverse collection of pastry programs. One of those is the recipe below for Pecan Pie with Bacon and Cream Cheese Crust.
Cream Cheese Crust
- Butter (cold, cubed) - 1 ½ sticks or 12T
- Cream Cheese (cold) - 6 ounces or ¾ cup
- All Purpose Flour - 2 ¼ cups
- Salt - 1 ¼ t
- Baking Powder - 1t
- Ice Water - ½ cup
- Apple Cider Vinegar - ¼ cup
Directions
Cut butter into small cubes and place into a bowl. Use your fingers to tear cream cheese into small pieces and add to the butter. Place the bowl in the freezer.
Fill a measuring cup with water and ice. Set aside.
Using a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and baking powder. Measure out a ½ cup of the ice water, making sure that it does not contain any cubes. Add vinegar to ice water and pulse into the dry mix. Continue pulsing just until the dough starts to come together. Dump dough out onto the counter. Knead gently with your hands until the dough is homogeneous. Shape into a disc and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. This can be done a day in advance.
Dust the counter with flour and roll the dough into a 10-inch circle. Place dough in a 9-inch pie pan. Crimp edges of pie as desired or simply press with a fork. Place in a freezer for at least 30 minutes or until the dough has hardened. Meanwhile, make the filling:
Bacon Pecan Pie Filling
- Bacon slices - 7
- Light Brown Sugar - ¾ cup
- Salt - ¾ t
- Curry Powder (optional) - ¼ t
- Unsalted Butter - 6T
- Molasses - 1T
- Light Corn Syrup - ¾ cup
- Vanilla extract - 2t
- Bourbon or Whiskey - 1T
- Eggs - 3
- Pecans - 2 cups
Directions
I add a dash of curry powder to this recipe. It is optional of course, but I swear you won’t taste it in the final bake. Instead, it helps (along with the bacon) cut through the overall sweetness of the pie.
Set the oven to 350 degrees. Place pecans on a sheet tray and toast for around 8-10 minutes. Lightly chop. Cook bacon, rendering out as much fat as possible so it is super crispy. Let cool and then chop well. Set aside.
Melt butter in a microwave or on the stovetop. Whisk together butter, molasses, light corn syrup, bourbon and eggs. Fold in the light brown sugar and salt. Fold in the bacon pieces.
Assembling Pie
Remove pie shell from the freezer. Spread pecans out on the bottom of the shell. Now pour filling over the pecans. Do this slowly, so the filling has time to settle around the nuts. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the center of the pie looks “set” and the crust is nicely browned. Let cool completely for 4 hours before slicing.
