Thanksgiving - Desserts

Chocolate torte in the front, chocolate molten cake on the right, and pumpkin pie in the back.

The icing on the cake, as it were. We usually have at least three desserts because we can never decide what to have so we just make them all. These are what we had this year. Plus, there's a bonus leftover recipe at the end of this blog.

Remember I made this for the dinner party? I doubled this because I knew we’d want these at Thanksgiving. The instructions and pictures are in the Dinner Party blog, but I’ll copy the recipe here.

Chocolate-Chile Molten Cake
Cooking spray
½ cup sugar, divided   

5 ½ ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate (such as Ghirardelli), chopped or chips
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Optional: 1 tbs. finely chopped canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (or ½ tsp. chipotle powder)
3 eggs
¼ tsp. salt
3 tbs. cornmeal
2 tbs. all-purpose flour
2 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, cocoa nibs, cocoa, or raspberries or other fresh fruit for garnish

Spray six 1-cup ramekins with cooking spray. Coat each with 1 teaspoon sugar. 

Place chocolates in a double boiler set over barely simmering hot water. Stir occasionally until chocolates melt. Remove from heat. Or microwave until just before the chocolate is melted. 

Beat butter and sugar together with a mixer until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and chopped chipotle; the mixture may separate slightly. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping bowl and beating 1 minute between additions.  

Add chocolate and beat 5 minutes. (Batter will be thick.)

Combine salt, cornmeal, flour and cocoa; sift over batter and stir.

Divide batter among ramekins. Don’t worry about smoothing out the tops. Cover each tightly with plastic wrap and freeze at least 4 hours. 

Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake frozen cakes 10 minutes. (Tops will smooth out.)

Let stand 5 minutes. Invert onto serving plates. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

  

PUMPKIN PIE REVISITED

I knew that Ree Drummond had done a piecrust tutorial on her website, so I checked it out. And I learned a lot! Yep, this is the way to go. This pie crust is the best I've ever tasted. No chemical aftertaste, flaky, tender – wow! For the complete instructions and explanations, go to Ree Drummond's website (on the right) and check out her pie tutorial. For a nine inch, two crust pie:

PIE CRUST

2 ½ cups all purpose or pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon sugar (for a fruit pie. Omit sugar for a savory pie.)
¾ cup cold butter, cut into chunks
¼ cup cold leaf lard, cut into chunks (I didn’t have leaf lard. I didn’t even have lard, so I used ¼ c. Crisco)
¼ cup cold water 

Mix the 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar together lightly in a mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor.

Add the butter and lard chunks and cut into the flour using a pastry cutter or by pulsing the food processor. The mixture should look like large crumbs and begin to cling together in clumps. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour and mix lightly or pulse the processor two or three times.

Do not over mix this flour. It should coat the clumps. 

Sprinkle the water over the dough and with hands or a wooden spoon mix in until dough holds together.

Shape the dough into two discs or one large and one small. At this point, I froze the dough. When I got it out of the freezer, it had to sit for about 30-45 minutes to thaw a bit.  

Using two sheets of parchment paper that is at least twelve inches square each, place a disc of dough between them. (If the dough is sticky for any reason, don’t worry. Just sprinkle some flour on the parchment to get started. You shouldn’t have to add much and it will stop sticking.) Starting at the center roll the pin out to the edge. Turn the dough and parchment as necessary and continue rolling, always from the center to the outer edge. The goal is to have a circle shape that will be just slightly larger than the pie dish. After a couple rolls, lift the parchment paper away from the dough to loosen and replace the parchment. Flip the whole thing and loosen the other paper sheet. Continue rolling until the dough is about eleven inches in diameter for a nine inch pie dish.

Work a bit quickly so that the dough doesn’t get too warm.
 

When the dough circle is the desired size (hover the pie pan over the dough to check if the dough circle is large enough) loosen both sheets of parchment by lifting them away and then replacing them on the dough. Keep one sheet of paper on the dough and use it to lift the dough and flip it into the pie dish. Take care to center the dough in the dish. Remove the paper.

 

To form the edge, I leave about an inch over hang (keep the trimmings for a pie crust cookie!). I turn it under and push the edge to a rim.

Then I crimp the edge with my fingers.

Not pretty, but who cares when the pumpkin and topping are in it?

For the pie itself, all the pictures are on my blog on baking with pumpkin. This is still the best pumpkin pie ever.

PUMPKIN PIE

2 eggs slightly beaten   

2 c. pumpkin        

3/4 c. sugar         

½ tsp. salt             

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 tsp. cinnamon         

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. cloves

¼ tsp. nutmeg

OR

2-3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 pie shell (bake at 425° for 10 minutes before adding filling. Remember the trick with the beans?) 

Mix spices with sugar.

Add all ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes then 350° for 30 minutes. Sprinkle on topping. Bake 15 minutes. Cool. This makes lots of filling - make in a deep dish pie plate.

Optional (although it’s not really) - top with:

¼ c. (½ stick) butter

½ c. flour

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

½ c. chopped pecans or walnuts

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients;

cut in butter and vanilla.

Sprinkle on pie last 15 minutes of baking.

I hope you can see how flaky the crust is.

Jenny made this and it was wonderful. Fabulous. Delicious. Chocolatey.

Double Chocolate Torte

Bon Appétit | December 2000

***Note: I used silken tofu and dark chocolate. Next time I would make it the day before – it took that long to set.

Or I would serve it separate from the brownie base, and just dollop the mousse like whipped cream. 

Cake:

8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

5 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan; dust with sugar.

Melt chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.

Cool to lukewarm. Whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and salt, then flour.

Pour batter into pan.

Bake until cake just rises in center (tester inserted into center will not come out clean), about 35 minutes.

Cool completely in pan on rack. Cover; chill while making mousse.

Mousse:

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1 (12.3-ounce) package reduced-fat extra-firm tofu

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

Fat-free whipped topping, thawed (optional)

Grated chocolate (optional)

2 cups fresh raspberries

Place chocolate and tofu in a food processor or blender, and process 2 minutes or until smooth.

Place salt and egg whites in a medium bowl, and beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until candy thermometer registers 238°.

Pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high speed.

Gently stir one-fourth of meringue into the tofu mixture;

gently fold in remaining meringue. Spoon mousse over cake.

Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. Garnish with whipped topping, raspberries and grated chocolate, if desired.

 

Bonus:

This is NOT a dessert, but Jenny used up some of the leftover Thanksgiving stuffing the next day by making:

Stuffing Frittata

· 

Cooking spray

· 

2 to 3 cups leftover stuffing (Note from Jenny: I reduced the stuffing, and added some whole wheat bread, so you could substitute any leftover bread for the stuffing.)

· 

1 cup shredded Cheddar (regular or reduced-fat)

· 

6 large eggs

2 large egg whites (Jenny says she didn’t use these)

· 

3/4 cup milk

½ teaspoon mustard powder

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves 

Preheat broiler.

Coat an ovenproof nonstick skillet with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Put stuffing in the bottom of pan to warm and stir to break up a little. Sprinkle cheese over top.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, milk, mustard powder, and nutmeg. Pour mixture over stuffing and cheese to cover stuffing. Sprinkle Parmesan over top. Cook on stovetop over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to the broiler and broil for about 2 minutes, until egg is cooked through and cheese is golden and bubbly.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. Serve with sliced tomatoes. Sounds delicious!

So, Happy Thanksgiving! even though it's after the fact. I hope yours was wonderful! I am indeed grateful for all my blessings.