Twinkle's Kitchen | Triple Decker Pecan Pumpkin Pie

After the turkey’s been carved, the cranberry sauced and plates scraped, it’s time for pie.  And everyone loves pie, right? The problem is which one to bake and which one to eat.

This year, I have a solution to this problem. Get all your favorite pies in just one slice.

My step-dad Brett and I have talked about a tri-decker pie for more than a year, and last Thanksgiving there just wasn’t enough time to bake it.

We’ve both talked big talk for making it this year, so I spent a weekend honing the details so success would be imminent once the Big Meal arrived.

It’s basically three pies in one. Yes, that’s right. Three pies, all baked simultaneously one on top of the other.

It is possibly the most perfect pie ever to be baked.

You’ll need a small recipe of each pie and the crust, of course, to create this spectacular feat of baking. It’s not difficult, but it is quite time consuming, so don’t try to make it last minute.

This is definitely a dessert that will wow the relatives, and awe the acquaintances. Your friends will flip.

Triple-Decker Thanksgiving Pie

1 recipe of Twinkle’s Perfect Pie Crust [LINK]

Cheesecake layer:

• 1-8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. salt

Pumpkin Pie layer:

• 1 2/3 cups unsweetened fresh cooked or canned pumpkin
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbs. brandy
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbs. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Pecan Pie layer

• 1 cup of pecans, half chopped and half whole
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup dark corn syrup
• ¼ cup bourbon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbs. melted butter

Line a greased deep-dish 9” pie dish with your rolled-out pie dough – about 1/8   inch thick.

Parbake – which means to partially bake – at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

*Parbaking helps seal the dough and keeps it from becoming soggy while baking pie filling.

While your pie shell is baking, blend ingredients for cream cheese layer until smooth.

After pie crust is done parbaking, remove from the oven and let cool. You can now turn off your oven, but you’ll need it again later.

Smooth in the cheesecake mixture and freeze for about 45 minutes or until just frozen.

While cheesecake mixture is chilling, mix pumpkin pie ingredients together.

Once the cheesecake layer is ready, pour the pumpkin filling onto the bottom layer and smooth out evenly.

Freeze again until the pumpkin filling has hardened.

Make the pecan filling while the pie is in the freezer, then pour on top of the pumpkin layer and place back into the freezer.

Turn your oven back on and set to 350 degrees.

When the pie has chilled for about 20 minutes, place it in the middle of your heated oven and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the pie is not wobbly.

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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