Thanksgiving Baking

It is technically still The "holiday weekend," right? I am out of time for a long post but wanted to share all the fun baking we did for the holiday. We made apple pie with salted pecan crumble, Limoncello macaroons and gluten free chocolate coconut brownies.

I got Kidlet involved by having her use the mortar and pestle to grind sea salt for the pie. She also loved using the apple peeler to peel and core the Granny Smiths. I will give the recipe below, we adapted the recipe from one I found a while ago on line.

Next we made Heidi's Lemoncello Macaroons, the dough is like play dough so Kidlet loved it. I let her cut the cookies from the long dough rope.

The dough is lovely to work with and the cookies, divine.

The Brownies were just my standard quick Gluten free go to, Pamela's Chocolate Brownie mix. I always add extra cocoa powder and vanilla to the mix. I use her frosting mix also, but make it very thin to coat the brownies with and add coconut to the top.

Today we snuck in a banana bread and gluten free corn bread for dinner!

Apple Pie with Salted Pecan Crumble

Salted pecan crumble:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons (packed) light-brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2/3 cup pecan pieces

5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 Pre made refrigerated pie crusts (The name escapes me but Whole Foods has an organic pre made pie crust we like)

Apple Filling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

6 (1/2 pound each) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Vanilla Whipped Cream:

1 cup cold heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1- 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions

To make salted pecan crumble: In a food processor, combine flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and 1/3 cup pecans; process until pecans are ground. Add butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Transfer crumble to a medium bowl; add remaining 1/3 cup pecans and, using your hands, crumble and squeeze mixture to form larger clumps. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Take one of the dough circles and wet one side, lay it on top of the other. Using a rolling pin, roll them together to make a thicker, larger circle. This will create a thicker dough and will give oyu more edge to work with.

Fold in half and ease gently into a 9-inch pie pan. Unfold dough, letting pastry overhang edge. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold under and flute or crimp edge. Refrigerate shell. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make apple filling: In a large bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, and nutmeg until blended. Add apples and zest; toss until apples are evenly coated. Remove pie shell from refrigerator and spoon apple filling into it, mounding filling in center of pie. Sprinkle crumble evenly over top of pie, gently pressing into place; place pie on a baking sheet.

Bake 1 1/2 hours, or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Dust top of pie with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Serve with cinnamon whipped cream.

To make Cinnamon whipped cream: In a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon until soft billowy peaks form.

Including the Kids with Pie Dough- Jelly Cat Rolls

Jelly Cat Rolls

My posts have been few and far between but that doesn't mean I have been just laying around! My family and I have been traveling, so cooking has been minimal. But we are back for a few weeks and are right back in the kitchen! When we were in Canada last week Claire got a treat from the grocery store, one for her and one for her cousin. The treat was an individual serving size rolled cake, vanilla with strawberry jam rolled in coconut. It was like a Little Debbie cake, not very good for you I am sure of that, she loved it! I assume she has been thinking about that treat because she recreated one!

My first Thanksgiving dessert was an apple pie, I had some leftover dough and when Kidlet saw it she instantly knew what she wanted to make with it.

Once she got the dough she asked me for jelly and coconut, both of which I had. I showed her how to roll the dough from the center out, she did a fine job. She spread jelly on it and sprinkled coconut on it then rolled it up. I helped her cut the pinwheels with a

big chef's knife. We chilled it for a few minutes before cooking and baked it for about 10 minutes and VOILA homemade strawberry roll ups!

Kids are funny, they know what they want and are perfectly capable of churning out their vision. This could be a good lesson for us grown ups, taking the lead from a kid. Just focus on what we want and make it happen, sometimes seems impossible but kids seem to do it with ease. Happy Holidays!