Making Thanksgiving Desserts: OVER THE TOP

I’ve been the official dessert maker for Thanksgiving for years. This time I decided that I really wanted to go all out. I made that choice while I was on my week-long water fast (for spiritual reasons) and I was insanely hungry. I spent so long searching out recipes and drooling over how delicious they looked. I literally had eighteen recipes that I was trying to narrow down. Yoveil was my little helper and sat on my lap saying, “HADA, NOTHING WITH PUMPKIN! OR NUTS! NO NUTS!”

I finally decided on these amazing three choices…

Caramel Apple Crisp Cheesecake. Oh my goodness, you guys, that is everything rolled into one package. I don’t love apple pie, but I LOVE any type of crisp. Cheesecake and caramel are favorites. So when I saw that recipe, I knew that it was a must.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes. Yoveil was devastated to see that I’d chosen those because she hates nuts, but pecans are so fallish and we really wanted a dessert that used them. The cupcakes look amazing – plus they are something that can be made using low sugar. I’ve become rather an expert in making almost sugar free cupcakes. XD

Third and final – pumpkin cheesecake truffles. COVERED IN WHITE CHOCOLATE. Literally all of my favorite things combined (besides the pumpkin which I don’t really love, lol).

The Cheesecake

I love making cheesecakes. My downfall is that I forget they need to chill in order to be really delicious. Yeah, they’re fine warm, but they are no where near their best. For once I actually read the recipe through (and watched the video about five times…I was hungry, okay?) and I decided I would make this on Tuesday so that it could chill multiple days and be ready by Thanksgiving. Plus it was the most time intensive and if I had it out of the way, I’d be able to spend more time Thanksgiving morning helping Mama with the meal. (And I don’t work Tuesdays, so I had the time, lol).

I ACTUALLY made a graham cracker crust. We normally don’t have those yummy little crackers, so my cheesecakes are crustless. But this time – perfection.

Next the crumble for the top. I LOVE crumble. I could literally have just eaten that whole bowl plain. 😉

Apples mixed with nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon juice.

The finished unbaked cheesecake. Ahh it looks so good. I topped it with the apples and crumble and then baked it for an hour.

We drizzled the finished product with a ton of homemade caramel sauce. It turned out to be Yoveil’s favorite dessert – even though she HATES cheesecake!

The Truffles

These failed sadly. They look absolutely disgusting. If I had had an interest in making them beautiful, they might have turned out better. But I was tired of baking and had other stuff to do, lol.

I made the middle from pumpkin puree, cream cheese, lady fingers and a bunch of spices. Then they sat in the fridge for a while to firm up before I dipped them in white chocolate.

Not the best tasting, but hey, there’s the pumpkin for Thanksgiving, right? XD

The Cupcakes

These were quite fun to make. I made them on Thanksgiving day. It’s lucky that I started them early because I was snacking quite a bit during the creation process. XD

First I made the pecan pie filling. Basically a really thick custard with pecans in it.

Yoveil: HADA, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RUIN IT WITH THE NUTS?!

Dovid: Oh GROSS! There are SEEDS in it!

Next the cupcakes. A typical cupcake recipe. They look so gooooood!

Then I made a cream cheese butterscotch frosting. Yes, we use cream cheese quite often. It’s perfect in so many things, lol!

When the cupcakes cooled enough, I cut holes in them and filled them all with the pecan pie stuffin’. Then I placed the tops back on.

Let it be said here and now that I am horrible at frosting things. I tried using one of those fancy little piping tips and gave up immediately when the bag started leaking, lol. I scraped it on with a spoon and called it good. They were enjoyed by everyone. After all, it doesn’t matter if they’re ugly, just that they taste good! 😉

And that’s it for the over the top Thanksgiving baking post. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed! What sweets did YOU have at your special meal? What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner?

~Hattush