Thanksgiving
Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping
January 9, 2013 | 
Author I adore my dad’s pumpkin pie. It was actually the very first pie I ever liked, because I used to think that fruit pies were gross. Mushy fruit = spoiled fruit and therefore pie was like eating a slab of rotten fruit. Thankfully I got over that. But somehow I have yet to share my dad’s pumpkin pie recipe on my blog. It’s actually adapted from the recipe on the can of pumpkin puree, except my dad uses homemade puree. This sometimes results in requiring longer cooking times due to being more liquidy than the canned stuff, but it’s worth it.
Then one day I saw this topping. Not that I thought his pie needed any improvement, but I had him try out this crumble topping when he made the pies for Thanksgiving. He made two, one with the topping and one without. The one with disappeared faster than the regular, even though most people claimed they had to have the regular – nothing new and fancy. But due to it’s disappearing act, I was unable to snag any photos of it.
So when it came time for my dad to yet again bake pies for Christmas, I requested one pie with the topping again. This time I was there to help so there really was no argument. And once again people said they “knew” they would prefer the plain version better, and once again the one with the topping went first (this was a new group of people too). And this time I got a picture before the masses descended upon it!
One year ago: Berry Detox Smoothie
Two years ago: Salmon Florentine
PUMPKIN PIE WITH BROWN SUGAR-WALNUT TOPPING
Makes 1 pie
Ingredients:
TOPPING
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
One unbaked 9-inch pie crust
FILLING
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1-3/4 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 15 oz. canned
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1-1/2 Tbsp flour
1 cup evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream
Directions:
- To make the topping: Add the walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt to the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly – I left some pieces of walnut a little bigger, but you could pulse until they were very fine. (You can make the topping a day ahead of time, just store in an airtight container at room temperature.)
- Preheat oven to 400 with a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Roll the dough into about a 12-inch round. Transfer to the pie plate. Trim away the excess then fold the edges under and crimp them.
- To make the filling: In a large bowl, mix together the eggs and pumpkin. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture. Add milk (or cream) and mix until smooth.
- Pour the filling into the crust and transfer the pie to the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the filling is firm (it will still jiggle, but if you touch it, it shouldn’t be wet). Remove the pie from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the surface then return to the oven. Bake for an addition 15-20 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 175 F. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- (You can make the day 1 day ahead of time. Cover and refrigerate overnight, removing about 1 hour before you intend to serve.)
Source: Pie from my dad. Topping from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures.
Pumpkin Bagels with Cinnamon-Walnut Cranberry Cream Cheese Spread
Now I KNOW you have leftovers from yesterday. Whether you have some from what you cooked, or from what people who cooked sent you home with to minimize the amount of leftovers they have to eat. Therefore, there is absolutely not reason you shouldn’t take advantage of this lazy Friday and make bagels with that leftover pumpkin puree you never figured out what to make with. Who needs Black Friday shopping? Not me! I’m a Cyber Monday kind of girl.
I’ve always longingly awaited the fall season when it comes to bagels, because that’s when Einstein Bros finally start making their pumpkin bagels and cream cheese schmear (I also really like their pumpkin schmear on a cinnamon-sugar bagel). So I finally decided it was time to make my own pumpkin bagels, since I already attacked the pumpkin cream cheese last fall.
But I couldn’t just make the same cream cheese spread again, I had to try this new one I saw that uses up even more leftovers – cranberry sauce! You mix the cranberry sauce into some cream cheese along with honey, cinnamon, and walnuts. Yea, it’s better than any flavor cream cheese spread I’ve ever encountered. And just like the originator, Jenn of Peas & Crayons, I want to smother it on everything in sight now.
One year ago: Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
PUMPKIN BAGELS WITH CINNAMON-WALNUT CRANBERRY CREAM CHEESE SPREAD
Makes 8 bagels and about 1 cup cream cheese spread
Ingredients:
BAGELS
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup warm water
2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar, divided
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
CREAM CHEESE SPREAD
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, room temperature
4 Tbsp cranberry sauce
1 Tbsp honey
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2-3 Tbsp chopped walnuts
Directions:
- For the bagels, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, yeast and 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar. Whisk together slightly and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes or until slightly foamy.
- Add the pumpkin puree and mix using a dough hook, then begin to slowly add the flour mixture. Mix for 5 minutes or until smooth, alternating between slow and medium speeds as you add flour. You want to mix it until the dough is no longer sticky. After 5 minutes, if the dough is sticky, you can incorporate another 1-2 tablespoons of flour*.
- Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large bowl. Cover and allow the dough to double in size, around 1 hour.
- Remove the dough and punch it down. Divide into equal pieces. A digital scale is very helpful, but if you don’t have one just eye out 8 even pieces of dough. Press your finger through the middle of the ball, and form into a bagel shape. They will rise some more, so if you want a hole, make it bigger than the size of a quarter. Repeat with the the rest of the dough. Place on a lightly greased surface and let rest until risen but not doubled, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bring 12 cups of water to a boil with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In batches, boil the bagels for around 20 to 30 seconds per side. Remove from water and place on prepared baking pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool before serving.
- While the bagels are baking make the cream cheese spread. In a smell bowl, combine the cream cheese with cranberry sauce, honey and cinnamon. Fold in chopped walnuts.
Source: Bagels from Lemon Sugar, Cream Cheese Spread adapted slightly from Peas & Crayons.
Posted in Bagels, Breakfast, Dressing Sauces & Condiments, Holidays, Thanksgiving | 
Tags: cranberry, cream cheese, pumpkin, yeast | 
8 Comments »
Individual Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Before we put the sole purpose of a chair to the test at dinner, let’s eat breakfast! This baked oatmeal is the perfect treat for Thanksgiving morning before diving into the days cooking. If you are not the one cooking, be super nice and make this for the cook and then they will be thankful for you today 
. Ulterior motives, anyone?
This oatmeal is for one serving, but can easily be doubled or quadrupled for a larger group. And feel free to get a little crazy with your toppings. I used peanut butter, vanilla Greek yogurt, and maple syrup. Yummy!
One year ago: Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup
Two years ago: Veggie Lasagna
INDIVIDUAL BAKED PUMPKIN OATMEAL
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp brown sugar
Dash of ginger and nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
1 Tbsp dried cranberries
Favorite oatmeal toppings
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an oven proof dish mix all ingredients (except for the toppings) together and spread out in to an even layer. Bake oatmeal for 25-30 minutes until oatmeal is set. Remove from oven and top with your favorite toppings. Serve.
Source: Adapted slightly from Steph’s Bite by Bite.
Posted in Breakfast, Holidays, Oatmeal, Thanksgiving | Tags: almond milk, cranberry, oats, pumpkin | 6 Comments »
Mini Pumpkin Black and White Cookies
I seriously cannot believe October is upon us already. Didn’t we just celebrate New Years? I’m so confused. But I guess it’s time to start digging into all things pumpkin! Let’s start with a fun twist on a classic cookie. Check it out on my post on Culinary.net today HERE.
MINI PUMPKIN BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES
Source: Joy the Baker Cookbook, pages 60-61.
Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Halloween, Holidays, Thanksgiving | Tags: chocolate, cinnamon, powdered sugar, pumpkin | 14 Comments »
Sweet Potato Dark Chocolate Bars
This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned to Finding Joy in My Kitchen. After digging through some delicious sounding recipes such as White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese, Zucchini “Pizza”, and Healthier Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Crumble Topping, I finally decided to make these sweet potato dark chocolate bars. It seems that I have not been able to get my fill of sweet potato lately.
These bars could have been made with pumpkins puree, which would have been easier because all I would’ve had to do is pop open a can. But I decided to go ahead and cook up some sweet potato and dig out my food processor to make puree. Was it worth it? Definitely. These bars are like sweet potato cheesecake, with a dense-cakey (almost sugar cookie-like) crust and a granola-dark chocolate topping. I have never used granola for a topping (only oats) and really enjoyed the extra crunch it added. I used one of my favorite store-bought granolas that has pumpkin seeds in it to complete the fall-ness of these bars.
Also, in the original post she wondered if this recipe would also work with a homemade yellow cake mix. So took up this challenge and went ahead and made my own homemade cake mix and used it in this recipe. Sure enough it worked! I’ll be sharing the recipe for the homemade mix tomorrow.
SWEET POTATO DARK CHOCOLATE BARS
Makes about 20 bars
Ingredients:
CRUST
1-18.25 oz. box yellow cake mix (homemade mix works too, about 2-1/2 cups)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg yolk
FILLING
2 cups sweet potato puree (could also substitute for pumpkin)
4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 egg white
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
TOPPING
1 cup granola (I used a store-bought granola with pumpkin seeds)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the cake mix, butter and egg yolk together until it forms a ball of dough. Press into a the bottom of the prepared pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine sweet potato puree, cream cheese, egg white, sugar and spices. Mix well until most of the lumps are blended. Pour the sweet potato puree mix over the top of the crust.
- In a medium bowl, mix the granola, cinnamon and dark chocolate chips together. Add the melted butter to help the ingredients stick together. Sprinkle the topping over the sweet potato filling.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The sweet potato layer remains somewhat creamy and solidifies as it cools. Allow to cool completely and then refrigerate before cutting into bars (not necessary, but the bars cut cleaner if you chill them first).
Source: Adapted slightly from Finding Joy in My Kitchen
Posted in Brownies & Bars, Cheesecake, Desserts, Halloween, Holidays, Thanksgiving | Tags: cake mix, cinnamon, cream cheese, dark chocolate, granola, sweet potato | 17 Comments »
Fall Recipe Roundup
Tomorrow, September 22nd, is the official start of the fall season. So why not compile a list of some fall favorite recipes in order to prepare oneself? Granted, I will still be living in the land of mid-80 degree highs, but I can try to pretend by lighting lots of fall scented candles. It is getting cooler at night, but unfortunately the boots and sweaters have to wait just a little bit longer for the daytime.
What is your favorite thing to make & eat during the fall?
One year ago: Sausage Stuffed Pretzel Bites
Breakfast
- Apple Butter Granola
- Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
- Apple Cider Pancakes
- Apple Harvest Oatmeal
- Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins
- Banana Pecan Waffles
- Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Biscoff Cream Cheese Bread
- Pumpkin Danish
- Pumpkin Granola
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Biscuits
Appetizers
- Bleu Cheese Ball
- Homemade Wheat Thins
- Fried Mac and Cheese
- Loaded Baked Potato Dip
- Pomegranate-Goat Cheese Ball
- Pumpkin Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
- Toffee Apple Dip
Entrees
- Apple Maple Turkey Burgers with Maple-Dijon Sauce
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Onion, Bacon, and Apple
- Butternut Squash Lasagna
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Cheddar Chili Cornbread Pasta Bake
- Creamy Tomato Basil Bisque
- Gnocchi with Goat Cheese and Spinach
- Goat Cheese Ricotta Gnocchi with Walnut Thyme Butter Sauce
- Grilled Three Cheese Sandwich
- Ron’s Chili
- Rosemary Brie Chicken Burgers
- Sweet Potato Cream Pasta with Crispy Kale
- Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Browned Butter Sauce
Sides
- Blue Cheese Scalloped Potatoes
- Cranberry Sauce
- Jalapeno Cornbread
- Roasted Potato Salad
- Homemade Applesauce
- Sweet Potato Fries
Dessert
- Apple Blackberry Pie
- Apple Butter Chewy Cinnamon M&M Cookies
- Biscoff Cheesecake Ice Cream
- Butter Pecan with Brandy Ice Cream
- Caramel Apple Pie
- Cinnabon Roll Rice Krispies Treats
- Cinnamon Candied Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Iced & Spiced Applesauce Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cinnamon Raisin Apple Bars
- Pumpkin Kissed Gingerbread Brownies
- Pumpkin Nutella Mini Cheesecake Bites
- Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
- Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
- Saltine Cracker Toffee
- Speculoos S’mores Cheesecake Bars
Apple Blackberry Pie
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I hope you all are having a wonderful day (or had since I hope you are not catching up on your Google reader when you should be spending time with your family). I am spending time with family in North Carolina and we actually jumped the gun on one of the two desserts I made for today, and ate it last night. Apparently this pie looked too good to not eat immediately upon my arrival after a 10 hour drive.
They really didn’t have to convince me to dig into pie a day early. Especially since I had baked it that morning and there was ice cream to put on top, yummy!
BTW, if you do not own an apple peeler/corer/slicer and a silicone pie shield, I strongly recommend them. The all-in-one peeler/corer/slicer perfectly peels off all the skin, cores out the middle and uniformly slices each apple all at once. And it’s fun to play with!
One year ago: Cranberry Sauce
APPLE BLACKBERRY PIE
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
CRUST
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup cold butter, cubed
4 to 6 Tbsp cold water
FILLING
5 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (about 6 medium)
1 cup fresh blackberries
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4-1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg + 1 tsp milk, beaten
1 tsp cinnamon-sugar (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Divide dough in half. Roll out one portion to fit a 9-in. pie plate; place pastry in plate and trim even with edge. (To avoid a soggy crust, brush egg-milk mixture on crust before adding filling.)
- In a large bowl, combine apples and blackberries. Combine the brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to fruit mixture and toss to coat. Pour into crust.
- Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie; place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edges. Cut slits in pastry*. Add decorative cutouts if desired. Brush a little of the milk-egg mixture over the pie dough and sprinkle with 1 tsp cinnamon-sugar if desired. Cover edges loosely with foil**.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; remove foil. Bake 40-50 minutes longer or until lightly browned and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator.
*I made a lattice top
**Or a silicone pie crust shield
Source: Adapted slightly from Taste of Home
Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
Allow me to introduce the first of the two stars to be featured this Thanksgiving for dessert in some very happy bellies – Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake!
I originally was going to make my dad’s pumpkin pie recipe, but thankfully realized ahead of time that I only had one pie pan (and I was planning two pies). Cheesecake pan to the rescue! I have made this recipe before but it’s been a long time. The most important thing I remember from making it last time was that it was super delicious! With a buttery ginger snap-pecan crust, beautifully swirled pumpkin layers, and a crunchy pecan topping, how could you really go wrong?
PUMPKIN SWIRL CHEESECAKE
Serves 12
Ingredients:
30 ginger snap cookies, crushed
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
3-8 oz. packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 dash ground cloves
TOPPING:
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
Directions:
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cookie crumbs, pecans and butter. Press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.
- Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Remove 1 cup plain batter; place in small bowl. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of reserved plain batter. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect.
- Bake 45 minutes or until center is almost set: While the cheesecake cooks, mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle around the outer edge of the cheesecake for the last 10 minutes. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 12 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.
Source: Cheesecake from Allrecipes. Topping adapted from Blissfully Domestic.
Posted in Cheesecake, Desserts, Holidays, Thanksgiving | Tags: cream cheese, ginger snaps, pecans, pumpkin | 12 Comments »
Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup
Are you finished with your Turkey-Day line up, or is there something still missing? Or maybe you are a last minute person and have yet to plan anything (and you are crazy)! Although I am not cooking the meal this year, I would like to share some recipes that would be great to have on Thanksgiving Day!
Do you have any recipes that are a must-have on your Thanksgiving table?
One year ago: Veggie Lasagna
Breakfast
- Apple Butter Granola
- Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
- Apple Cider Pancakes
- Banana Pecan Waffles
- Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Biscoff Cream Cheese Bread
- Pumpkin Danish
- Pumpkin Granola
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese
Appetizers & Starters
- Baked Crazy Feta
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Creamy Tomato Basil Bisque
- Homemade Wheat Thins
- Nutella Fruit Dip
- Peanut Butter Hummus
- Pepperoni Pizza Deviled Eggs
- Pomegranate-Goat Cheese Ball
- Pumpkin Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Side Dishes
- Blue Cheese Scalloped Potatoes
- Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Onion, Bacon, and Apple
- Cranberry Sauce
- “Don’t Judge Me” Mac & Cheese
- Easy Garlic Knots
- Garlic Rolls
- Homemade Olive Garden Salad & Dressing
- Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli
- Roasted Potato Salad
- Sweet Potato Fries
Dessert
- Amaretto Chocolate Cheesecake
- Apple Blackberry Pie
- Banana Foster Cream Pie
- Buckeye Candies
- Butter Pecan with Brandy Ice Cream
- Caramel Apple Pie
- Iced & Spiced Applesauce Cookies
- Pumpkin Kissed Gingerbread Brownies
- Pumpkin Nutella Mini Cheesecake Bites
- Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
- Nutella Mousse
Leftovers
P.S. I added two desserts to this list after the original post – I was in charge of dessert this year after all O:-).
Pumpkin Kissed Gingerbread Brownies
Today is the first day of the Holiday Blog Hop that Erin @ Big Fat Baker organized! And today’s post is supposed to include one of these three things – pumpkin, apple or maple. Originally I was tempted to attempt working them all into something, but I am just feeling the pumpkin, even though I keep meaning to make apple-y things now that the weather has started to cool down (if only for a few days). And I FINALLY found apple cider. But I digress…
I don’t think I’ve ever had gingerbread outside of it’s cookie-man form. I also don’t think I’ve ever baked something gingerbread-y before Thanksgiving because I believe in celebrating one holiday before moving onto the next. But I justified this by adding pumpkin spice kisses. It’s the dessert to transition between the fall and winter holidays – the pumpkin from Halloween/Thanksgiving and gingerbread for Christmas. It makes me food-holiday happy!
The scoop of vanilla ice cream on top drizzled with more melted pumpkin spice kisses put me in pure bliss. I should’ve popped in the Fireplace bluray and lit a fireplace-scented candle to complete the mood (oh non-fireplace apartment living).
This would also work well with any other flavor of kisses. Look out for those Christmas ones to use later for a strictly Christmas-y dessert! Be sure to check out the other posts for today’s blog hop at the bottom of this post.
PUMPKIN KISSED GINGERBREAD BROWNIES
Makes 18 brownies
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark brown sugar
1/4 cups cocoa powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground clove
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg plus one yolk
1/4 cup boiling water
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1-10 oz. bag pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses, unwrapped
2 Tbsp milk, optional
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 9- by 13-inch baking dish and set aside.
- Sift together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
- Combine the butter, molasses, milk, egg, and yolk in a medium bowl. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup boiling water with the baking soda. Add the water to the batter and stir to combine.
- Line the prepared pan with 50 kisses, then pour the batter evenly over top of the kisses. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean – 25-30 minutes. Transfer brownies to a rack to cool.
- Optional: Place remaining kisses in double broiler with milk to melt. Scoop ice cream on top of brownie and drizzle melted chocolate over ice cream and brownie, and serve.
Source: Adapted from Country Living and Picky Palate.
Posted in Brownies & Bars, Christmas, Desserts, Holidays, Thanksgiving | Tags: cocoa, gingerbread, molasses, pumpkin | 19 Comments »
