Thanksgiving Desserts

Libby’s Pumpkin Roll

Brownies with PB Chips, Mini PB Cups, & Chocolate PB Ganache

Cherry Almond Pie Bars

Here are the three desserts I made for Thanksgiving.  They were all very good but the surprise standout was the almond cherry pie bars.   Everyone thought thought they were amazing.  Even those that normally go for the pumpkin or chocolate desserts went back for seconds of the pie bars.  Another plus, besides their overall deliciousness they are also waaaay easier than baking an actual pie!

This recipe comes by way of Amanda’s Cookin’ and her blackberry pie squares recipe.  (If you haven’t yet, check her out.  I’ve made a few of her recipes and have been please with each one.  She also has a pretty cool craft blog. )  I’ve adapted her recipe twice now.  The first time I used Lucky Leaf’s blueberry pie filling and upped the lemon factor by adding the zest of one lemon to the sugar. This time around I used Lucky Leaf’s cherry pie filling and subbed in almond extract for the vanilla. 

Almond Cherry Pie Bars, adapted from Amanda’s Cookin'

Bars:

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temp
4 eggs, room temp
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
30 ounces cherry pie filling,* (21 oz. is one can of pie filling but I added another half a can)

Glaze:

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons heavy cream, enough to make the glaze pourable

1/4 teaspoon of almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream sugar and butter in mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add the almond and beat well. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Turn mixer speed down to lowest setting and slowly add flour mixture until completely combined.

Spread half of mixture onto an ungreased 15x10 jelly roll pan. (Amanda weighted hers out.) Spread pie filling over the top of the batter. Drop remaining batter onto the pie filling layer by spoonfuls.  Spread gently.  (I use a damp offset spatula to do this. Don’t worry about it not being perfect.  It all works out.)

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. (I took mine out at 38 minutes. Do not under bake. Remove to a wire rack.

Whisk together the powdered sugar, melted butter, and heavy cream.  Drizzle over warm bars. (Toasted almond slices would be nice sprinkled on top.  I didn’t add them because my Dad doesn’t care much for nuts. He’s weird! :))

Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Printable recipe

*Note:

I have been very fortunate to receive Lucky Leaf’s pie fillings.  Each one I have tried has been wonderful.  In the past I’ve never cared for the other brands I’ve tried. I found that they were too sweet and artificial tasting.  Not so with Lucky Leaf.  And for those of you staying away from high fructose corn syrup you’ll be happy to hear that Lucky Leaf’s does not contain any!

Disclosure:  While I received Lucky Leaf pie fillings to try.  The opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Babygirl’s Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie

This beauty is brought to you by my babygirl.  She not only made the pie by herself, she also took the photos.  ( I edited them in Picasa.)  In keeping with the theme of today’s post I’m going to allow McKenna, aka Babygirl tell you all about her pie.

Hi! This is Babygirl and I really loved this pie that I made.  It was fun and a little easy but it was more fun. Instead of just tossing the berries on top I wanted to make a flower with strawberries. (Well my mommy told me about it and I like the idea so I went with it.) It was hard making the strawberry flower because you have to pick the right strawberry slices. If you want to make the strawberry flower you can find it on Ms. Monica’s blog. If you have any questions send them to my mama and say that they are for me. Thank you. Babygirl out.

Here’s the adapted recipe by Babygirl: 

 Strawberry Topped Cheesy Lemon Pie, printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 18 graham cracker squares, crushed
• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 3 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 lemon, zested & juiced
• 16 oz cream cheese (2 8 oz blocks) at room temperature
• 14oz sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
• Various berries for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place graham cracker crumbs in a medium sized bowl, sprinkle sugar over top, and pour in melted sugar.  Stir well with a wooden spoon.  Once the mixture is even in color place it into a 9 inch pie pan.  Using your fingers pat crust  mixture into place covering the bottom of the pie pan and completely up the sides.  Once the crust has been shape, bake for 6 to 7 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set  on cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. Meanwhile place cream cheese in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk and beat well, about 1 minute. Scrap down sides of bowl and add in lemon zest and juice.  Beat until smooth scraping down sides as needed.  Pour cream mixture into cooled pie crust and smooth out top.  Chill in the fridge at least 3 hours.  After the 3 hours or prior to serving top with fresh berries.

The original un-adapted recipe can be found in William Sonoma’s Sweet Treats.  This is a great book for young kids interested in baking.  Babygirl has successful made 5 or 6 recipes out of it!

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A proud Mommy moment, Babygirl was awarded The Presidential Award for Educational Excellence!  Only 20 out of 99 fifth graders in her school received it!  :) YAY!

Burn, Baby, Burn

And burn it did! My meringue that is…

April’s recipe challenge was Emeril’s lemon meringue pie and was chosen by Michelle.  Normally we try to blog about our results by the first of the following month but someone, I don’t know who, held things up.  (Sorry, Ladies! :)) So, we’re a little late.

Except for my kitchen torch not working and burning my meringue a bit broiling it in the oven, I think this recipe was a success. All three of my children devoured their mini tarts, which is an excellent sign that they loved them.  I think I even caught Devon about to lick his plate!  :) I know he thought about it and wanted to. 

I made two changes to the recipe.  I used the Michelle’s pie crust recipe, which is actually Julia’s by way of Dorie.  And instead of making a 9 inch pie I made four, 4 inch mini tarts.   I’m most proud of my crust as it was the biggest challenge for me.  I’ve only made pie/tart crust once before and looking back I don’t think I did a very good job.  (Thanks, Debby for your encouraging post on pie crust!)  This crust was light and flaky, perfect! 

If you make 4 mini tarts you’re going to have a lot of the filling left over.   I’m not sure what’s in store for mine but I have an idea!  I didn’t have any meringue left because I piled it on and lost some of it out of the top of my piping bag, which I might have over filled.  Okay now you know the drill!  Hop over to see how Monica and Michelle fared with their pies! 

Pie Dough, for a printable recipe

(from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan)

~yields enough dough for two double-crust pies** (You can find the halved recipe here.)

5 1/4 c. pastry flour or all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. kosher salt

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 3/4 c. solid vegetable shortening (11 ounces), chilled

1 c. ice cold water

Fix mixer with paddle attachment (or use a pastry blender).  Put flour and salt in bowl and mix.  Add butter and mix on low until it is cut into dry ingredients and the mixture looks coarse and crumbly.  Add shortening in small bits and continue to mix on low.  When the mixture holds together when a small bit is pressed between your fingers, add the water and mix only until it is incorporated.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and fold it over on itself two or three times, just to finish the mixing and to gather it together.

Divide the dough into four equal balls and flatten into thick discs.  Wrap dough discs in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours or as long as 5 days.  When dough is thoroughly firm and chilled, roll for pie crusts.

**For baking instructions follow the recipe you’re using this crust in. 

Upside Down Apple Pie

Except for the apple peeling this a fun, easy, and forgiving recipe.   No worrying about perfect crusts or crimping ‘cause after it’s baked you’re gonna flip it over and all the wonderful pecans and caramel that were on the bottom now make a lovely and delicious top. 

I saw this on both Tidy Mom’s and Noble Pig’s blog a month or so ago.   At the time I didn’t realize that their recipes weren’t the same.  It wasn’t until I decided to bake one  and tried printing out the recipes that I noticed.  The recipes are close but there are some differences.   I elected to use what elements from each that suited me best and have posted that recipe here.  (To see their recipes just click on their names under the recipe title.)

I made this Friday evening when my parents came over for dinner and everyone really enjoyed it.  I did learn one thing after baking this pie; crust matters so don’t use the store brand of pie crusts.  It was tolerable but just barely.  Next time I’ll spend the extra dollar and buy Pillsbury. :)

Upside Down Apple Pie

adapted from Noble Pig & Tidy Mom

Ingredients
1 cup chopped pecans (heaping)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 TB of butter
1 box of Pillsbury All Ready Pie Crust *
1 tsp flour
5 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored & cut into 1/2" slices
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg  (Don’t use much more than this amt.)

Directions

Heat oven to 375°F.

In 9" deep pie plate, combine pecans, brown sugar, and butter; spread evenly over the bottom of the pan. Prepare the pie crust according to package direction for a two crust pie.  Place bottom crust evenly over the pecan mixture in your pan. Press the crust down around sides of the pan.

In large bowl, combine the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Toss gently to coat apples.  Spoon the apple mixture into pie crust lined plate.

Top with the second pie crust.  You can  flute edges but my bottom crust barely met the top so I pinched the two together as best I could.  Cut several slits into the top crust to vent.

Place pie plate on a cookie sheet and bake at 375° for 40-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Mine took about 45 minutes.  I cooked my pie on the middle rack but Noble Pig cooked hers in the lower third of her oven.

Cool pie upright in pan on a rack for 5 minutes.  Place a rimmed serving platter that is larger than your pie over it  and invert.  Your pie is still going to be hot so be careful.  I used a large folded dish towel to hold the hot pie plate. Carefully remove the pie pan. Some nuts may remain stuck to the pan.  simply remove them with a knife and gently replace on the pie.  Allow pie to cool pie to desired temperature.  I cut into it after 35 minutes or so and  it was still very warm.  Top with whipped cream or better yet vanilla ice cream. Maybe even more caramel, mmm!?

 

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