Posts tagged thanksgiving

My next 3 classes need to recognize that Thanksgiving is too close to continue with lecture. Organic chemistry vs. kitchen chemistry? Yeah, that’s a tough one.

ALL THE FOODS!!!

Ooohh yeah. It’s pumpkin pie AND cheesecake. Did I mention the oreo crust?

This is the naked version. Before consumption, it was slathered with maple whipped cream.

Is there a rule against delayed posting? Like a digital expiration date? Is it cheating for me to post this if it’s from Thanksgiving? Not that it is of course…I just happened to shoot it in exactly the same as the pecan pie trifles—I’m that good.

So I planned on making the cheesecake and pumpkin layers about 50/50…but I kind of forgot that adding a cup and a half of pumpkin would actually increase volume (surprise)—that and I’m apparently pretty bad at eyeballing amounts. Fortunately, I think it still worked out.

Also I subbed in condensed milk instead of regular sugar for a more classic pumpkin pie taste/texture (what doesn’t improve when you add more dairy to it?)

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake (modified from Allrecipes.com)

Makes 1 cheesecake (one mega awesome cheesecake).
Plan to make a few days ahead to give the flavors time to develop.

Oreo Crust

• 2 sleeves of Oreos (or generic equivalent), blended into crumbs*
• 4-6 tbs of butter, melted

1. Combine crumbs and butter and press into a 9” (I think I used my 13”) springform pan. Press a little up the sides of the pan and then wrap the bottom in tin foil—you wanna catch all that awesome caramel-ey butter that leaks through.

*I would have used 3 sleeves (the whole package) if the 3rd sleeve weren’t already in my stomach at that point…

Filling

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 14oz can condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract AND/or 2 tbs real maple syrup (I think you know what you should do)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon**
• 1 pinch ground cloves**
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg**

1. Combine cream cheese, condensed milk, and vanilla/syrup. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 1/2 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
2. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
3. Bake in preheated 325 oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Turn oven off, open door, and let the cheesecake just chill out in the oven for awhile. Once cool, refrigerate at least overnight. Even better if you wait a few days.

Maple Whipped Cream
(I would say this is optional, but it’s not)

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 - 2 tbs real maple syrup

1. Whip the cream and syrup until stiff peaks form. Slather/pipe/eat off of hands onto the whole cheesecake or to individual slices.

*I make my own pumpkin puree by cutting a pie pumpkin in half, putting it shell side up on a baking sheet and roasting at about 325 for an hour or so. The flesh scoops right out. If you’d rather be lazy take a shortcut, you can use canned, but I can’t vouch for the flavor. Also, the original recipe called for a measly 1/2 cup. What’s that? Pshh. If I’m using pumpkin, I’m gonna actually use it. If you’re not a pumpkin fan, decrease the amount (or maybe don’t make recipes with “pumpkin” in the title).

**I didn’t really measure my spices, but I usually amp up the amounts. So start with what’s listed and try the batter to see if it needs more flavor.

Hope you enjoy!

Hi folks! Inaugural blog post here. Definitely feeling the pressure to make it super good for all zero of my followers. So, imaginary audience, I present you with pecan pie trifle shots. A zillion callories of gooey, buttery goodness.

That would be a pecan pie filling layered with a pecan/crust crumble and topped with some homemade maple whipped cream. I don’t think you’re supposed to enjoy piping this much. Oh and check the super cute mini spoons that I spent forever looking for (lesson learned, check Ikea first for everything).

I’m always drooling over Bakers Royale’s mini trifles and decided to do a trifle twist on the classic pecan pie for Thanksgiving this year.

Now, I don’t normally cook with sugar—I think of it as powdered death. I try not to even keep it in the house, but my sister always sneaks it in somehow. When I do make sweets, I try to use natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or stevia. But when pecan pie ended up on my Thanksgiving menu, I didn’t even consider using any of those. I love pecan pie and didn’t want to see it scaled down—despite my conscience begging me to. I probably should have tried to healthify it (yeah, it’s a word), but I figured if it’s ever okay to ingest copious amounts of unadulterated corn syrup and sugar, it’s during the holidays and it’s for pecan pie.

(ignore the signature change, working through a bit of an identity crisis here)

Pecan Pie Trifle Shots

Makes 12 regular sized shot glasses full.

Filling (adapted from AllRecipes.com—and oh, whose photo would that be?)

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecan halves (USE ROASTED)*

1. Toss all ingredients in a blender (or food processor if you wanna get all fancy) and blend until smooth enough to pipe without clogging. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until it has reached maximum gooeyness. Let it cool before loading it into a pastry bag with the fattest tip you’ve got.

*I use caps lock sparingly, that’s how important getting roasted pecans is. Super, caps-lock-worthy important. Roasted pecans > normal pecans by a factor of infinity. Either roast your own or try to find some (picked mine up from the international market for roughly the same price as unroasted). You will not regret it—unless something horrible happens in the roasting process…

Pecan/Crust Crumble (This is my basic crust scaled down, but feel free to use your own go-to recipe)

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tbs sugar (I always add molasses b/c molasses just makes everything better)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped

1. Mix and bake the top 3 ingredients in a small dish at 350 until the crust is set. Once cool, crumble and mix with the pecans. Set aside.

Maple Whipped Cream

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (you could probably use light, but why?)
• 1 - 2 tbs real maple syrup

1. Whip the cream and syrup until stiff peaks form. Load into a pastry bag with a large star tip.

Assembly

1. Pipe a layer of pecan pie filling into your shot glasses.
2. Spoon in a layer of the pecan crumble.
3. Pipe another layer of the pecan pie filling.
4. Top with the whipped cream.
5. EAT.

*Next time I make this (and there will be a next time) I think I’ll try to pipe a layer of the cream in the middle somewhere to lighten the texture. Hope you enjoy!

As you can tell, I’m super new to blogging so feedback is definitely appreciated. Thanks!