Thanksgiving Recap: Part 2

Ok, I promise, this is my last Thanksgiving-related post. As much as it pains me to admit, fall has come and gone for another year. The ground was littered with leaves during my morning commute today and, despite the fact that I was listening to Christmas music, I cried a little on the inside. But, I have saved (in my not so humble opinion) the best for last. It's dessert time people! 

So, when last we left my Thanksgiving adventures, TF was joining my family for Thanksgiving dinner and I was all abuzz (to loosely summarize yesterday's post). After crafting some mad mac and cheese, it was dessert time. This is where my talents have always lied and, despite my improvements in the cooking arena, dessert is still where I shine. As I alluded to yesterday, I was both on a mission to outdo last-year-Gian, as well as impress TF with my rapidly improving culinary skills. And so, I committed with full confidence to make FOUR desserts for this year's feast....only one of which I'd made before. And so the madness began...

Dessert #1: Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Redo 

I made this one for the first time the week before Thanksgiving for my awesome day of work-Thanksgiving (also known as the day we got to spend most of the day eating Thanksgiving food outside the office...still one of the best work days ever). I made this one again because it was so delicious and I didn't get nearly enough of it the first time around. Also, I can't have Thanksgiving without something pumpkin-inspired on the table, I'm old school like that.

Dessert #2: Mini Apple Pies

I have a lot of food issues to take into account in my family. My sister and I are vegetarians, my aunt and grandmother can't eat chocolate, and my mom prefers her desserts to only be chocolate. Not sure that my grandmother would receive my pumpkin cheesecake well (she's 87 and pretty set in her ways), I wanted to make an additional chocolate-free item for her to try out. 

Next to pumpkin, apple is my favorite go-to fall baking ingredient. I made my first apple pie last Christmas, but since I was already juggling so many dishes I wanted something slightly easier....enter the mini apple pie. I only have two regrets with this dish--1) that I didn't make the crust from scratch (again, I had to pick my battles...I'm notorious for over-extending myself); and 2) I didn't have a tiny leaf cookie cutter to make the tops prettier. Live and learn. They were still delish...even my chocolate loving mother liked them! 

Ingredients [makes 12]

Original recipe found here

• 4 cups Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 12 Tbsps all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 4 tsps of cinnamon (I let them overflow a little because I LOVE cinnamon)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 4 Tbsps chilled butter, cut into 12 equal portions  
• 1 box (2 crusts) of Pillsbury pie crusts (next time I'm making my own!)

Preparation

1. Unroll your pie crust and begin to cut circles out. Continue this until you have 12 mini crusts. Save the excess dough to make to crust for the tops after the mini pies are filled

Oddly, one of my favorite parts--I used the top of a large glass, but a mason jar lid would work as well

2. Peel and dice apples. Unfortunately, I found this part to be the most tiresome as my mother, the anti-cook likes to keep her kitchen sans fun tools (no apple peeler or slicer for me) and I forgot to bring my own. I rallied though

No matter where I bake, my faithful assistant is always by my side :)

3. Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine apple pieces with cinnamon, flour, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Toss until thoroughly coated

4. Grease and flour muffin tin, then line with mini pie crusts. Nice trick the original creator shared, slightly pinch down the sides so that they stay afloat prior to being filled

5. Fill crusts with apple mixture and gentle push down into pan. Place slice of butter on top of each (I definitely forgot this step and had to yank them out of the oven midway through to add the butter to the top....this was my last dish of the day so my brain was a little fried). Top with excess dough to create a fun crust (this is where I wish I had a leaf cookie cutter)

6. Bake at 400 for 18 to 22 minutes or until crusts begin to brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Since we served these the next day, I stored them in the tin overnight, then covered them with foil and warmed for about 10 minutes in the oven to recreate the fresh from the oven taste!

Dessert #3: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Frosting and Mini Chocolate Chips

TF is a fairly picky eater as well (although I've made some progress in expanding his food horizons), but luckily he shares my mother's love of chocolate. When we last had Thanksgiving together I insisted that we bring dessert. TF has a couple baking specialties, but chocolate chip cookies are kind of what he's known for (at least in our circle ;)). While our creation used both a boxed cake mix and icing from a can (shake of head, shake of head), we did use homemade cookie dough...although it was not sans egg, so it's somewhat of a miracle no one got sick. Nevertheless, it was delicious and pretty much the biggest cake I've ever made. I would not be doing this story justice without some throwback pics...

TF adding the cookie dough filling on top of layer #1

I forgot about our brilliant idea to add chips to the middle as well....may need to do a remake of this cake in its entirety soon

Behold, the finished masterpiece. We gave away hunks of this cake to our law school classmates and it still took over a week to get rid of it all!

It was from this cake that I drew inspiration for the final two desserts of Thanksgiving 2012:

30 Minute Chocolate Cake Ingredients
Courtesy of a family recipe I discovered 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda (dissolved in buttermilk)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 sticks margarine
• 3 Tbsps cocoa powder
• 1 cup water

Chocolate Mousse Icing Ingredients

• I'll be honest, I kind of made this by accident. I was trying to recreate this one, but it came out super light and fluffy instead. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I did it (I think my butter was softened too much). So I'll just encourage you to experiment or trust google for this part :)

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 400 F

2. Mix sugar and flour in large bowl

3. Combine margarine, water, and cocoa in a small pot on the stove. Heat to a boil and mix until margarine is dissolved

4. Pour over flour and sugar, mix well

5. Add eggs, buttermilk/baking soda mix, and vanilla. Mix until combined

6. Pour into pan (I used a bundt pan for fun) and bake until cooked through (about 35 minutes)

7. Once cooled, icing and cover with as many mini chips as desired

Dessert #4: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffle Balls

Since mother doesn't share TF's love of cookie dough, I made these to incorporate the cookie dough element from the original cake into our dessert spread this year. Unlike the original, however, these were from an egg-less recipe, but so good that they were equally as addicting as the real thing.

Ingredients

Courtesy of Cooking Classy 

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, chopped (about 1/2 - 1/3 their original size)
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, for melting/drizzling 

Chopping the chocolate was more fun than I thought it would be....I seriously had so much fun cooking all these desserts, it's kind of ridiculous

Preparation

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt until pale and fluffy about 3 - 4 minutes
2. Stir in cream and vanilla extract. Add in flour and mix just until combine (dough will seem dry at first but it will come together)
3. Mix in chopped chocolate chips. Scoop dough out 1 equal tablespoon at a time and roll into balls
4. Place on parchment or wax paper and chill. I chilled mine overnight, but that was due mostly to time
5. If drizzling with chocolate, place 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave on 50% power in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth
6. Using a spoon, drizzle chocolate over cookie dough balls (or you can use a ziplock bag with a hole cut in the tip). I knew TF would care more about taste than presentation, so wasn't into dealing with the bag....and I was right

And so concludes Thanksgiving 2012. Congrats if you made it all the way through this epic post, I didn't realize how long it would end up being?! Now, onto many, many days of Christmas baking!!