This week: Anything/Everything Thanksgiving - favorite recipes, memories, thoughts about the holiay - So post away!
I’m going to be booked solid and frazzled for the next couple of weeks, so this will be a ‘free-for-all’ thread, and will run for the next two weeks. Weekly thread will be back after T-Day!
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking-thread ping-list, please send a private message.)
-JT
yuck I hate the holidays, all that forced cheer, all that work
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk (or use skim milk and add a little cream)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup very hot water (or hot coffee)
For the frosting
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar (divided)
1 package (8oz.) cream cheese
3/4 cup Sprouts Organic Hazelnut Spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish
2 Tablespoons chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons Sprouts Organic Hazelnut Spread
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
additional 12-15 whole hazelnuts
Directions:
Bake the cake
Heat oven to 350*F.
Prepare cake pans by rubbing the sides of the pans with a little oil or butter and dusting with flour. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl (the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
Stir in hot water or coffee (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
Bake until the top of the cake is smooth and has a slight dome and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I baked the cake shown in three 7” pans and baked them about 30 minutes. You will need to adjust the bake time based on the pans you choose.
Cool completely before frosting. I like to cool the cakes at room temperature a bit, then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until cold and firm (30 minutes or up to a couple days).
Prepare the frosting
Chill your mixing bowl and beater(s) in the freezer for 5 minutes. This will help the whipping cream whip up nice and quickly.
Pour the heavy cream into the chilled bowl, then beat until it begins to thicken. Slowly add half (1/2 cup) of the powdered sugar, while mixing. Continue to beat until the cream has almost doubled in volume and is nice and fluffy.
Remove whipped cream from mixing bowl (into another bowl), and set in the fridge.
In the mixing bowl (empty, but no need to clean fully), add the cream cheese. Beat until smooth.
Add the remaining (1/2 cup) powdered sugar and mix until fully combined.
Add the hazelnut spread to the smooth cream cheese, and blend until fully combined. Add vanilla and blend.
Retrieve the whipped cream from the fridge and add one large scoop (about a cup) of whipped cream into the mixing bowl with the hazelnut spread/cream cheese mixture. Blend slowly (using the whisk attachment), until combined.
Add the remaining whipped cream to the bowl and use a spatula to gently fold/stir the whipped cream into the hazelnut mixture.
Fill and frost your prepared (cooled) cake as desired. You should have plenty of frosting to cover the cake and some remaining for decorative touches (to be added later). Move frosted cake to the freezer if you plan to add chocolate glaze (recipe follows).
Garnish
Once the cake is frosted, if desired, add a chocolate hazelnut glaze by combining 2 T. chocolate chip and 3 T. hazelnut spread in a small bowl and microwave (at 50% power) 30 seconds at a time until mostly melted. Stir to combine. Cool slightly, then pour onto the top of the frosted (and chilled) cake. Spread almost (but not quite) to the edge. Top chocolate layer with chopped hazelnuts.
If desired, add remaining hazelnut whipped cream frosting to a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip and add decorative swirls (as pictured) around the top edge of the cake. Top each swirl with a whole hazelnut.
Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Keep any remaining cake in the fridge.
The cake shown was baked in 7” round cake pans. If you are using 8” or 9” pans feel free to just make two layers of cake.
If you are not making a (7”) 3 layer cake, you can reduce the frosting recipe as follows... 2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 4oz. (1/2 package) cream cheese, 1/2 cup hazelnut spread, 1 teaspoon vanilla.
http://www.glorioustreats.com/2017/11/chocolate-hazelnut-cake.html
Cappuccino Chocolate Truffle Pie
Ingredients
1/2 cup DARK Cocoa
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Chopped Dark Chocolate (70-85% cacao)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
9-inch baked pastry crust (prepared or make your own)
CAPPUCCINO CREME (wait until ready to serve): In mixer, combine 1 cup (1/2 pint) whipping cream, 1-1/2 teaspoons powdered espresso, 2 teaspoons DARK Cocoa and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar; beat until stiff. About 2 cups.
Directions
Heat oven to 350°F.
Melt butter over low heat. Stir in cocoa and sugar. Add sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and eggs; stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Pour into crust.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes - until center is almost set. Cool completely.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Just before serving, prepare and top with Cappuccino Cream.
http://dyingforchocolate.blogspot.com/2017/11/national-cappuccino-day-cappuccino.html
I always recommend, ‘Taste of Home’ for recipes and how-to’s for novice cooks. You CANNOT go wrong when a Midwest Mom or Grandma is at the helm!
Our Thanksgiving this year is going to suck - my StepDad is in the final stage of Pancreatic Cancer, though he may still surprise us, so no BIG Family Festivities this year.
One year Beau and I were at an organic wool farm (he was courting me at the time; he doesn’t put up with such foolishness now!) learning to card and spin wool and they also sold home-raised, plucked and frozen roasting hens. We bought one that ended up costing us $37!
THIRTY-SEVEN DOLLARS for a roasting hen? (In it’s defense, it WAS 8 pounds; it was HUGE!)
I treated that thing as if it were an expensive Truffle when I was preparing it. We STILL have the Wish-Bone and haven’t pulled it apart, yet.
We still laugh about that $37 dollar CHICKEN quite often! :)
We will be doing Thanksgiving at the house of friends nearby. We will be bringing the turkey. It will be brined overnight and smoked on a Traeger wood pellet grill using hickory pellets. Total cook time will be around 7 hours.
Yes, great idea to keep it going all through Nov.
I LOVE the gilden corns. And the idea to make turkey gravy ahead.
Making the entire Thanksgiving meal by myself so anything I can make ahead, I need to.
The basic recipe is in The Keto Reset Diet. You could do a batch with pumpkin spice. Or a form of the fudge type that is cut into squares. Even a stuffing-flavored one to have with the turkey.
May I just grouse briefly that it’s SO not cool that Thanksgiving is WAY early this year? It completely snuck up on me. Completely my fault. Between the new job and starting grad school, I’ve been more than a little busy, but still... Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I’m going to take a couple days and just enjoy it and be so thankful to God for who He is and all He has done for me. Now, bring on the recipes!!
Hope you and my other cooking friends have a great Thanksgiving, coming sooner than I thought!
I was looking for more vegetarian recipes and sides this year. This site has some nice ideas:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/healthy-thanksgiving-recipes_us_59d6a148e4b072637c42ed7c
I am going to add this to the Thanksgiving dessert list this year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/maple-and-pumpkin-custard/16166/?utm_term=.e7d1579d09bc
Someone brought this to a rustic italian dinner. I thought it was like eating a warm muffuletta sandwich. I am going to make it again.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/italian-antipasti-stuffing-3894845
Therer are some wonderful ideas here;
https://food52.com/blog/20938-what-to-serve-at-small-or-large-thanksgiving
Made this for lunch today. Loved it, as I love all thing butternut. I used a whole container of the cheese and also added various chile flakes/spices to the squash. I also dressed the arugula with some oil and vinegar.
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/savory-butternut-squash-crostata/20941/
lots of great recipes here from one of my favorite food bloggers:
http://www.closetcooking.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-side-dishes.html
