And just like that, the holidays have just about come and gone. And with it are gone Starbucks red cup conspiracy theories, Elf on the Shelf (thanks goodness), eggnog, and Hallmark Christmas specials. Also, gone are some of my favorite holiday foods (if I didn't have morals, I'd just eat Christmas food year-round and be a billion pounds), not the least of which is pecan pie, and save for Momofuku's crack pie, may be the best pie in the world.

Having grown up in the south, pecan pie was about as prevalent in my life as sweet tea. I don't remember a single Christmas or Thanksgiving as a kid that didn't have a jug of sweet tea and a rack of pecan pies on the dinner table. I'm probably lucky to not have gotten diabetes by the time I was a teenager. However, with a strict prohibition policy in our home, booze never found its way inside our house, let alone inside food and drink recipes. It was much later that I had to find out on my own that whiskey makes all most things better (nothing can make fruit cake better), and especially pecan pie. So naturally, this year's holiday project was to make a bangin' pecan pie with whiskey, and being from the south, only a bourbon pecan pie recipe was appropriate (with chocolate, of course).

I was a little skeptical when researching bourbon pecan pie recipes to make for the holidays. It was largely ignorance, since I really didn't know what went into it. I essentially thought it was the working of unicorn dust that made sugar and pecans all of a sudden become the most delicious pie in the world. So basically magic. But when I started reading pecan pie recipes, my response was, "That's it?" When done right, it seemed easier to make a pecan pie than Easy Mac. And I did it right the first time!

This Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe recipe was largely inspired by Paula Deen's bourbon pecan pie recipe on the Food Network. Naturally, I took some liberties, like adding a pinch of salt, a spoon of vanilla, and most importantly, chocolate chips. Because chocolate, and bourbon, and also pie. So without further ado, I bring you my bourbon chocolate pecan pie recipe.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Cream Cheese Pastry:

• 3 oz. cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tbsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp. bourbon
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups pecan halves

Instructions

1. For the cream cheese pastry, beat cream cheese and butter at a medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour, beating at a low speed until soft dough forms.
2. Shape pastry into ball (either 6 for mini tarts or one for large tart) and press into tart pan.
3. Sprinkle chocolate chips over pastry and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Beat eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter, brown sugar, flour, bourbon and vanilla at a medium speed with an electric mixer until blended.
5. Pour into prepared tart shell (half-full if doing minis) and arrange pecan halves over filling and drizzle with remaining filling.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit; For mini tarts - 30 to 35 minutes or until set. For a 9in tart bake for 55 minutes or until set.