Give Thanks for This Bold and Boozy Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Pie

Pie doesn’t win any awards unless both the filling and the crust come together in a sublime matchup and the whole thing looks like a million bucks on the dessert table. This boozy pumpkin pie with a cream cheese swirl makes the cut. The crust has classic butter-rich flavor, but the lard makes it extra-flaky. Lard is the key to this unbelievably flaky, non-shrinking, tender piecrust, and you want to make sure to use the right kind — aka one that doesn’t have a pronounced pork taste. Look for leaf lard, or choose a brand that Pittman recommends: Tenderflake. 

Be careful so as to not overwork the dough, which can lead to a tough crust. Mix the dough until it just comes together, then stop. Keep lard and butter very cold. For ice water, scoop from a bowl of water with lots of ice. For a tender crust, use a light touch. Using a food processor will make you less likely to overwork the dough. 

This recipe makes enough dough for you to make several pies, or you can save the extra dough in the freezer for the next time you need piecrust (maybe leftover turkey pot pies or a last-minute apple pie). Mixing up the dough in the food processor makes it less likely that you’ll overwork it and make it tough. Orange liqueur and cardamom give the filling a brighter, more perfumed flavor than traditional pumpkin pie, and the swirl of cream cheese filling enriches the whole pie.

Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet to make it easier to move in and out of the oven. When blind baking, before putting your pie weights in, crumple parchment paper to make it more pliable, then use it to line the dough. Fill the lined crust with pie weights or dried beans so the dough presses against the sides of the dish. Avoid stretching the dough at any stage of the process — stretching leads to shrinkage.

If a hole appears after baking the crust, you can patch it with a little bit of pie dough, and bake for another five minutes until the patch just sets. Find leaf lard, a quality, neutral-flavored pig fat, at fatworks.com. While not leaf lard, Tenderflake lard is another neutral tasting, high-quality option. Find it at canadianfoodtousa.com.

Make ahead

Once the piecrust is cooled, you can store the baked piecrust at room temperature, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, for up to two days. The dough can be made through step 1 and stored, wrapped well, in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Transfer to a ziplock plastic bag to freeze for up to two months. Cooled pie can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.