Week 47 brought us to Thanksgiving. I really enjoy Thanksgiving or, as it's known in my house, Flip the Bird. This is a longstanding inside joke from my college years that involved a raw turkey, soy brining (setting trends without even knowing it), limited budgets, and terrible word choices. This year was the 18th iteration of the feast and, in light of the visitors we were having, it was going be awesome.
We'll focus on the desserts since Flip the Bird is really just an excuse for me to make far too many desserts. (
In case you are wondering: dry brined turkey, shredded brussels sprout salad with ricotta toasts, cheese plate, cranberry chutney, corn and herb pancakes, Chinese sausage and sticky rice stuffing, honey-roasted carrots with tahini, and seafood paella.) It was a good thing that I had already got an apple pie and a chocolate pecan pie out of my system. This meant that I could add some new and exciting options to this years' menu!
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| Cranberry chess |
We kicked off the week with a cranberry chess pie. This was a late addition to the lineup, mostly because I had gotten too many cranberries for the chutney and had an extra (all-butter) pie crust. I'm now the kind of person that can have an extra pie crust to deal with. The recipe itself was pretty simple - reminiscent of a sugar pie. No blind baking needed either. I will say that this might have been my hands down favorite pie of the bunch.
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| Chocolate pudding bundts |
Next up was a Valrhona chocolate pudding bundt cake. This was the same bundt that I had made for the Minnesota State Fair competition that had scored reasonably well, despite the slight underbake. Since I hadn't had a chance to actually taste it, I thought I might give it another go and a taste. The recipe calls for one 12 cup Bundt pan. I broke it up into two 6 cup pans and there was some danger of overflow. Because of the puffing, the cakes actually didn't sit so well and had some cracking around the bases once flipped. Probably best to just decrease the volumes by a little bit. But the judge was right - great flavor!
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| Maple pecan |
Thanksgiving day meant finishing the rest of the pies for the Flip the Bird festivities. Started the day with a maple pecan pie, to try out something new. This was also quite good. I had some grade B maple syrup from one of the vendors at the Oak Park farmer's market still in the pantry, and this seemed like a great time to put it to use. Another all-butter crust. I think that the filling was still a bit too sweet for my preference - it tasted best with a big cup of black coffee.
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| Shaker Lemon |
Last up was a Shaker lemon pie (cream-cheese and butter crust) made with a mix of Meyer and conventional lemons. Despite the recipe warning you to plan ahead, I didn't. So I only macerated the lemon slices in the sugar for 10 hours before assembling (rather than overnight). Luckily, it seemed to work out fine. Probably helps that I am a huge lemon and marmalade fan so the bitter tang was particularly welcome.
If I was to gauge, I think that the most popular of these was the cranberry chess pie. But there was a dedicated faction to the maple pecan pie, as well. More importantly, I think that for the next iteration of Flip the Bird, I'll just make a turkey, the sticky rice stuffing, and all of the desserts that darn well please; Everyone else can fill in the rest of the meal, potluck style. Since I really just want to make too many desserts.....
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