Pumpkin-Chocolate Cheesecake Pie - BHG

From Better Homes and Garden Nov 08

1 recipe Deep Dish Pie Pastry (see below)
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup finely shopped semisweet chocolate or mini chocolate pieces
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 sup half and half or light cream

First: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare and roll our Deep Dish Pie Pastry. Transfer to 9 1/2 to 10 inch deep dish pie plate. Flute edge high. Line pastry with double thickness of foil. Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 6 minutes more or until golden. Cool on wire rack and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Next: In medium mixing bowl combine cream cheese 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg; beat on low until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture in cooled pastry shell. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate.
Then: In bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar and spice. Stir in 4 eggs. Gradually stir in half and half. Slowly pour pumpkin mixture on chocolate layer. To prevent over browning, cover pie edge with foil.

Last: Bake 60 to 65 minutes at 375 or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. Top with chopped chocolate.

Deep Dish Pie Pastry: In medium bowl stir together 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 tsp. salt. Using pastry blender or two knives cut in 6 Tbs shortening until pieces are pea-size. Sprinkle 1 Tbs cold water over part of flour mixture; gently toss with fork. Push moistened dough to the side of bowl. Repeat using 1 Tbs water at a time until all flour is moistened (5 to 6 Tbs total). Form into ball. On lightly floured surface, flatten dough. Roll pastry from center to edge into 13 in. circle.

Notes: this pie turned out very tasty. My first mistake was leaving this until last minute as I was making this for an event. So I cheated and used store bought pie crust which was obviously not made for a deep dish pie pan. On the plus side my pampered chef pie crust shield is a fantastic tool that kept my crust from over browning. The 3/4 cup chocolate was too much. I'm pretty sure I ended up only using about 1/4 to 1/2 cup at most. This pie tastes best when eaten same day baked.