The Final Blessing: Thanksgiving Desserts

Someone will almost always bring a pumpkin pie and/ or a mincemeat pie. There are variations, but it is always safe to use the recipe on the back of the canned pumpkin can for reliably good pumpkin pie, and by the end of a wonderful dinner, a lot of men just want good-ole-pumpkin pie, nothing fancy, you know, the way Mom used to make it. So go ahead, make one of the plain old pumpkin pies for him.

Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 (15 oz) can Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can Carnation Evaporated milk (12 oz)
1 Unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie shell

Mis sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in canned pumpkin and sugar spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake in preheated 425 F (220 C) oven 40 – 50 minutes or intil knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours and then serve or refrigerate.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Roll
This is a little more challenging, and you have to have a jelly-roll pan. Once you have done one of these roll things, though, you know it’s a whole lot easier than it looks. Yayyyyy.

This is a great Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert when you are sick of the same-old same-old desserts. Plus, one of these old fashioned rolled desserts always looks really fancy!

Cake:

Powdered sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped walnuts

Filling:

1 package cream cheese
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 15” x 10” jelly roll pan. Line with waxed paper, grease and flour paper (there is a reason!) Sprinkle a flat tea towel or dish cloth (flat woven, not terry cloth) with powdered sugar.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in a larger mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin, stir in the flour mixture. Spread evenly in prepared jelly roll pan, sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake 13 – 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake out of pan onto prepared tea-towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla in samll mixer bowel until smooth. Carefully unroll cake, remove towel, and spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Roll cake back up again (it will want to be in the rolled position after cooling that way) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Soused Apple Cake
From Quail Country: The Junior League of Albany, Georgia.
If you don’t have brandy, don’t bother with this one – the brandy give it the punch, even though all the alcohol cooks off during baking. Kids hate this cake, adults love it.

4 cups cooking apple 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup raisins 2 teaspoons baking soda
brandy 1 teaspoon nutmeg (grate it fresh, it matters!)
2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup salad oil 1/4 teaspoon mace
2 eggs 1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups flour whipped cream

Peel, core and finely chop apples; put into a bowl with raisins and cover with brandy, and soak overnight. Drain apples and raisins, set aside.

Combine sugar, salad oil and eggs. Set aside. Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and mace. Add to oil mixture. Mix in apples, pecans and raisins. Mix well and pour into an oiled 9 x 13 baking dish. Cook in 325 degree oven for 1 hour.

Cut into squares, serve topped with sweetened whipped cream. Yield 15 – 20 servings.

** I use a tiny bit of ground cloves instead of mace. I also have used all sorts of whiskeys and brandies, but my favorite remains calvados or . . . rum! It is one of my favorite recipes.

Pecan Pie
When I saw pecans during Ramadan, I bought them up, da*n the expense. Pecans! This recipe is also from Quail Country, by the Junior League of Albany, GA. It is permanently marked in my cookbook!

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 9-inch deep dish pastryt shell, unbaked

Beat eggs slightly; add sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Blend well, but do not overbeat; add butter. Stir in pecans. Pour into pastry shell. Bake in preheated 350 F (180 C) oven about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Six servings.

OK, that (above) is the fail-proof recipe.

To me, it comes out very flat and thin, so I double the recipe and cook it in a French tart pan (large round glass or ceramic cooking pan with fluted straight edges), and then cut thin slices. This is very rich, very sweet.