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Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas

The students have all closed their novels and packed up their supplies for Thanksgiving Break, so it’s time for me to take a deep breath and relax — until the baking begins tomorrow, of course! Because I enjoyed reading Jillicious‘s list of things she’s thankful for this year, here are a few of my own:

  1. Jesus, who made the greatest sacrifice for me.
  2. My family — they’re crazy, wonderful, and so supportive.
  3. Mike, who has never disliked anything I’ve ever cooked, whether overseasoned, underseasoned, burnt, or weird.
  4. Cake.
  5. Friends, for joining me in ridiculous escapades.
  6. My students, who make me laugh every day and (usually) make me feel like I’m making a difference through my teaching.
  7. Writing.
  8. Byrd and Squirt, my poodle and red-eared slider. One is fluffy and hyper, the other is scaly and . . . frowny; nevertheless, they’re both the sweetest pets anyone could ask for, and have made my little apartment a home.
  9. My snuggie. Shut up; it’s comfortable!
  10. Food, which is one language through which history, family, culture, and emotion has been communicated to me. I love joining the conversation.

On that note, here are some dishes that have warmed the pages of Willow Bird Baking in the past months that would be lovely on your Thanksgiving dinner table. May you enjoy the sharing of mirth, love, and calories with your family this year!



Mini-Pies: Pumpkin, Peach Crisp, and Sour Cream Apple — Add some variety to your Thanksgiving pie choices! Everyone gets to choose their own flavor. The pumpkin and peach pies are especially scrumptious.





Jack-O’-Lantern Whoopie Pies — These cakey cookies are hearty, moist, spicy, and addictive. Whoopie pies should be part of every family’s Thanksgiving tradition.







Peach Crisp Pie — Delicious, gooey peaches and crispy oats fill a tender, flaky crust. This is my favorite pie of all time!





Best Ever Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Easy Caramel Frosting and Spiced Apples — This moist, dense, finely-crumbed cake is heavenly with or without some spicy cinnamon apples on the side. “Best Ever” is not an exaggeration!



Chocolate Tart — Tired of pumpkin? If you’re a chocolate lover, this tart is a must-eat. Rich, indulgent chocolate fills the buttery tart crust, and a pile of freshly whipped cream accompanies each bite. This post also includes a bright and tangy Raspberry Cream Cheese Tart.


Overnight Yeast Rolls — These fluffy, delicious, buttery yeast rolls are part of my family’s annual Thanksgiving tradition. When I realized I was old enough to make them myself (and at any time of year, too), it was one ecstatic day in the kitchen!


Cardamom Pumpkin Macarons — Having an elegant Thanksgiving? These gluten-free cookies combine cardamom with traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin. Macarons are the perfect bite: crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside.



Barefoot Contessa’s Carrot Pineapple Cake — Looking for a big, beautiful cake to adorn your Thanksgiving table? Barefoot Contessa’s Carrot Pineapple Cake is brimming with hunks of pineapple, carrot, walnut, and raisin. With cream cheese frosting slathered on in a thick layer, it’s an elegant and decadent Thanksgiving dessert.

Green Chile TURKEY Enchiladas — Okay, these don’t quite fit on the Thanksgiving dinner table, but maybe you find yourself wondering what to do with all your juicy turkey leftovers? These Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas can be transformed into turkey-filled treats, and what a great way to spice up leftovers. The recipe is so seductive, yet very simple — it won’t take up all of your Black Friday!


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Best Ever Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Easy Caramel Frosting and Spiced Apples

Last Saturday served as a perfect example of why I dread the coming winter. It was a frigid day filled with misty rain and capped by a gloomy, gray sky. The slick streets were inundated with horrible Charlotte traffic. Depressed by the lack of sunlight for taking photos, I was nevertheless trekking to the store and to my parents’ house to gather materials for a cake. If you’d caught a glimpse of me, you might’ve mistaken me for a little black raincloud; in fact, all I needed was to take Winnie’s cue and strap a balloon around myself for the illusion to be complete. I scowled about the drivers who neglected to use their turn signals, griped to myself about the parking situation at the store, stepped in a billion ice-cold puddles, and bought a plate for my cake only to find it was “not for food use.” Humpf harrumpf humpflumpf! Finally, I grumpily turned into my parents’ neighborhood to borrow a tube pan from my mom.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP1vPfSCYQs&hl=en&fs=1&]

When I finally arrived at my parents’ house, I was thrilled to see the warm, orange glow of the kitchen cut through the side windows into the gray morning light. Finally, some relief and refuge from the weather and from my mood. Indeed, I walked in the door and what should greet me but the smell of freshly made pumpkin pancakes oozing with butter, syrup, sugar-free caramel sauce, and whipped cream. And don’t forget the sizzle of turkey sausages on the side! My mom was standing there channeling June Cleaver (who am I kidding? June has nothing on her) flipping delicious Low-Carb Pumpkin Pancakes while my dad read the paper and anticipated his plateful. Shame on me for wallowing in my mood! My faithful God had arranged such a sweet homecoming for me despite my scowl.


Flipping some delicious Low-Carb Pumpkin Pancakes. If you look closely, you can see my mom’s Mii Cupcakes in the background!


Low-Carb Pumpkin Pancakes served with butter, syrup, sugar-free caramel, and sugar-free whipped cream. Side of turkey sausage.


Dad enjoying his breakfast.

Food plays such a prominent role in my family, and certain dishes in my mind are associated with comforting or joyful memories. The smorgasbord of silly appetizers at our New Year’s Eve game night, the cinnamon rolls and egg casserole on Christmas morning, Dad’s amazing pork butt and slaw, the chicken and dumplings we always clamored for, monkey bread! Milk toast! Sausages, peppers and onions! I could go on and on. It’s no wonder that walking into a comforting kitchen filled with delicious scents and a welcoming plate of breakfast truly felt like coming home — not just coming to borrow a tube pan. My spirits were lifted, and as I drove home, I was prepared for a day of baking another lovely family memory: the richest, most dense and moist pound cake you’ve ever tasted. It’s iced with a simple caramel frosting and served alongside some Southern fried apples.


The best pound cake ever in the history of the universe, hands down. I’m not even worried about overselling it.

Let me see if I can explain how amazing this cake is. The cream cheese imparts a richness to the already buttery batter, and results in a very dense, smooth cake. Cutting into the cake is like slicing into butter, and it’s lovely served slightly chilled. My usual complaint with pound cakes is that they’re dry even with a glaze, but this one stays perfectly moist throughout its entire baking time. The frosting has a sultry caramel flavor without the fuss of normal caramel making, and is the perfect complement to the buttery cake. As for the apples, those were my addition! What with the nice fall days we’ve been having (well, except for the miserable weather from last week), warm Southern spiced apples sounded like a delicious accompaniment to a cool cake. And maybe there was a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream in there somewhere too!

This is absolutely one of those must-bake recipes. One bite and you’ll be daydreaming all day about slicing yourself off another piece! And what a lovely dessert to share with family. I drove back to my parents’ house on Sunday to drop some off for them, and my dad sent me an email from work the next day saying he was enjoying a slice. I hope once you taste your first forkful, this cake will become part of your family’s own food memories.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Easy Caramel Frosting


Recipe By: Southern Living
Yields: 12

Cream Cheese Pound Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Caramel Frosting Ingredients:
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter

Directions:
Make the pound cake: beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed of an electric mixer 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat only until yellow disappears. Stir in vanilla.

Combine flour and salt and add to creamed mixture beating on low speed of electric mixture just until blended after each addition. Pour into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Fill a 2-cup ovenproof measuring cup with water and place in oven with cake (keeps it moist!). Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean (check in several areas of the cake to be sure it’s completely done). Let cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from pan (invert onto a plate and then invert onto another so that it’s upright) and let cool completely. When cool, spread caramel frosting over the sides.

Make the caramel frosting: melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Add brown sugar; cook over low heat, stirring constantly, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves (do not boil). Remove from heat.

Stir in whipping cream. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat at high speed of an electric mixture until spreading consistency (do not overbeat, or your frosting will develop a play-doughy, “crunchy” consistency. It’ll still taste good, but won’t look very nice or be easy to spread). Spread immediately on top and sides of cake.


Care for some Southern Fried Apples with your cake?

Southern Fried Apples



Recipe by: Diana Rattray (slightly adapted and halved)
Yields: about 4 cups of fried apples

Ingredients:
4 medium Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled, chopped
1/8 cup butter
1/4 – 1/2 cup brown sugar (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg (about half of 1/8 teaspoon)

Preparation:
Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sauté 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are tender.

Julie’s Note: I made double this and had way too many apples. Three or four tender spiced apple slices are perfect to accompany a single slice of cake, so you don’t need many. You can keep these refrigerated in an airtight container and just warm them up in the microwave before serving with cold cake (and ice cream or whipped cream, if desired). Finally, plenty of websites told me not to bother peeling my apples, so I didn’t, but I wished I had. Even though the peel got tender, it was still a different texture than the apple flesh and wasn’t “a-peel-ing.” Ha ha!




Enjoy!


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Mini-Pies: Pumpkin, Peach Crisp, and Sour Cream Apple

As the days adopt a chill and the pretty trees behind my apartment lazily lose their leaves, I’m embracing what’s to come. I’ve already begun lighting my Balsam and Cedar candles, poking about for pumpkin recipes, and crunching happily down sidewalks strewn with crisp leaves. I’m trying to get in the autumn spirit, and it was with that mindset that I sat down this week to hunt for delicious recipes. My Sunday school class is having a potluck tomorrow, and I wanted something bite-sized and special to contribute.

Whenever I’m pondering what to bake, I struggle between two very disparate urges. On one hand, I love baked goods that are cute. You know, those cupcakes that look like burgers, cake balls shaped like random animals, cakes decorated to resemble inanimate objects. On the other hand, I grow more in tune with each passing week to the fact that I’m pinching salt, molding dough, tossing flour, and in short, creating things with my hands. In keeping with that, I love baked goods that are simple, rustic, and emphatically homemade. Marrying these two desires is sometimes difficult, but this weekend, I think I found the perfect solution (just in time for the Sunday school potluck): miniature pies. Itty bitty Pumpkin Pies, Peach Crisp Pies, and Sour Cream Apple Pies, to be precise.

These tiny pies are so sweet and cute and charming . . . that I’m almost suspicious. Remember diminutive, pigtailed Rhoda from the classic 1956 horror film The Bad Seed?

She was ostensibly the picture of perfection, but in actuality, she was going around killing neighborhood children, old ladies, and her family’s dimwitted handyman. I can just see her roller skating down the sidewalk with a basket of these perfect pies. She used to ask her parents, “What will you give me for a basket of kisses?” and they’d respond nauseatingly, “A basket of hugs.” But who wants a basket of hugs when you could have a basket of pies?

Murderous allusions notwithstanding, these particular perfect treats are not too good to be true. Unlike dear Rhoda, they are every bit as sweet and delectable as they appear.

The Mini Peach Crisp Pies were exact taste replicas of their full-size cousin. I chopped fresh, juicy peaches and mixed them with brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oats. This simple combination yields an unexpectedly bright fall flavor with a satisfying, gooey, oaty texture. I’m glad I have more of these waiting in my fridge. I don’t know if my Sunday school class will get to sample these!

The Sour Cream Apple Pies had a nostalgic appeal. When I was little, my mom made a buttery, tangy dessert she called, simply, Apple Kuchen. It was easy to assemble — a yellow cake mix base topped with apple pie filling and sour cream. I’ll have to post that recipe sometime, since it was my first introduction to the apples and sour cream together. That combination is still a favorite of mine today. These mini-pies didn’t quite live up to my expectations, though; the flavor was very mild and left me wishing for more spice. The recipe I used didn’t call for a single bit of cinnamon or nutmeg, and though I snuck in a few shakes of the cinnamon jar, it still needed some work. I have to hand you a grain of salt to take with my criticism, though, since I’m devouring these little apple parcels lustily. The sweet apple flavor is certainly still appealing.

Last but not least, the Pumpkin Pies were my absolute favorite. Spicy, custardy pumpkin inside a buttery, flaky crust, all topped with either a pretty pecan or a dollop of homemade whipped cream (okay, or both!). Want to know the best part? They were by far the easiest mini-pie to assemble — so easy that I’m making them one of my go-to desserts. Just like the Plum and Cream Mini Tortes Mike and I loved so much, these little pies pay out much more joy and deliciousness than they cost in labor.



I can’t wait for you to try these miniature pies and share your thoughts with me! How else are you going to try three or four different flavors of pie all on one plate? If you’d rather not indulge your do-too-muchitis, though, why not choose just one flavor to bake? Pop a pan of the easy pumpkin pies in the oven all by themselves for a simple treat. Whether you bake one flavor or all of them, I hope you’re thrilled with the sweet results.

Miniature Pies: Pumpkin, Sour Cream Apple, and Peach Crisp


Recipe By:

Digs Magazine (pumpkin pie filling)
Not Martha (fruit pie inspiration)
Epicurious (apple pie filling, adapted)
-Willow Bird Baking (peach crisp filling)

Yields: About 48 mini-muffin sized pies, depending on proportions
Crust Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup cold butter flavored vegetable shortening*
3/4 cup cold butter, chopped
6-8 tablespoons cold water
*I tried shortening for this recipe, but prefer lard!

Pumpkin Pie Filling Ingredients:
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
6 oz. evaporated milk
1.5 eggs*
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
*For half an egg – lightly beat one egg, then measure out 1 1/2 tablespoons.

Peach Crisp Filling Ingredients:
3 peaches, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/8 cup oats
pinch salt

Sour Cream Apple Filling Ingredients:
2/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large eggs
1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large Granny Smith apples

Egg Wash Ingredients:
1 egg
a little water

Whipped Cream Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (or flavoring of your choice)


Directions:

Make the crust: Pulse flour and salt together to combine. Add chunks of shortening and pulse into the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Add in chunks of butter and pulse until butter pieces are no larger than small peas, about 10 pulses. Add minimum amount of water and pulse on low. If dough remains crumbly and doesn’t come together, add another 2 tablespoons of water. Add as little as is required to enable the dough to be rolled into a ball. Form the dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes while preparing your filling.

Make desired fillings: While dough is chilling, make desired fillings.

  1. Pumpkin: Combine the sugars, cinnamon and ginger in a mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and stir in the pumpkin; add the evaporated milk and mix well. Refrigerate if you aren’t using it right away.
  2. Peach Crisp: Mix all ingredients together.
  3. Sour Cream Apple: Whisk together the sour cream, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs, and flour until the mixture is smooth. Add the apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin, and stir the filling until it is combined well. Note: I added a teaspoon of cinnamon and wish I’d added some nutmeg, too.

Prepare the bottom crust: Take one of the disks of dough and pinch off walnut-sized balls. Place a ball in each well of an ungreased mini-muffin pan. Using your fingers, work the dough up the sides of each well (and create a little lip of dough rising over the edge for fruit pies). Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

For fruit pies: Fill each well with desired fruit filling. Pinch off a piece of dough and flatten it or roll it out thin on a sheet of parchment paper. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out a top crust. Place the top crust on one of the wells, folding the bottom crust lip over with the edge of the top crust and crimping the edges shut. You can use a toothpick to decorate the edges. Repeat for all of the mini-pies. Cut a crisscross vent in the center of each pie. Mix the egg and water in a small bowl and brush the tops of the pies. Bake pies at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, checking often. If the pies appear to be getting too brown, cover the whole pan with aluminum foil. Remove and let cool in pan for a few minutes before transferring mini-pies to a wire rack to cool completely.

For pumpkin pies: Pour pumpkin pie filling into each prepared well. Bake pies for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is golden and filling set. Remove and sprinkle chopped toasted pecans on top OR decorate with a pretty toasted pecan half. Let cool in pan for a few minutes before transferring mini-pies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve mini-pies with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream. To make homemade whipped cream, mix all ingredients together until soft peaks are obtained.

Notes: The fruit pie filling portions above are most likely out of proportion. I made extra peach and apple to freeze. The pumpkin filling recipe above has been halved from the original, because I made the original amount and ended up with way too much.

To store Pumpkin and Sour Cream Apple Mini-Pies, refrigerate in an airtight container.


Preparing my apple pie filling and baking the pies.



Pumpkin pies baking and cooling off.



All packed up and ready to go to Sunday school!



Happy Eating!

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