Mini Thanksgiving Dessert Bites

The big debate at my family’s Thanksgiving dinner has never been about wanting a leg or a wing, white meat or dark meat, or should the potatoes be sweet mashed or twice baked. Rather, it’s always been about what dessert would you like to try and how big of a piece? The dessert table can quite honestly get to the point of insanity. A tasty and enjoyable insanity, but insanity, nonetheless.

Years ago, my Mom would make two homemade apple pies for Thanksgiving. One we would have for breakfast while we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade on the television, the other we would enjoy for dessert. There would also be the occasional coconut custard pie added to the mix. As I started to develop my passion for cooking and for all things pumpkin, it became my tradition to make the pumpkin pie for our dessert table. When my daughter, Julianna, learned how to make a pumpkin pie from scratch in her home economics class, she asked to take over the pumpkin pie duties. My brother, on the other hand, took over the apple pie responsibilities a while back, making not only the traditional lattice crust version that my Mom would make, but also an apple cider cream pie that is beyond amazing. Not only do we have pumpkin pie and two variations of apple pie represented, but there are also holiday cookies, candies and chocolate covered cherries thrown into the mix for the grandkids who are not fans of the traditional Thanksgiving desserts.

It has become an annual pre-holiday conversation, trying to figure out how we can scale this all back a bit. The argument is always that we don’t need all this dessert…but, it’s only one time of year and it all tastes so good. So, every year we have this dessert extravaganza that we all enjoy and appreciate, but honestly are only able to sample just a tiny bit of each. We are just coming off the biggest meal of the year, and now we are trying to enjoy little bits of these delicious baked goods to satisfy our sweet tooth and our curiosity. The coveted ‘sliver’ as my wife Daria would always say.

This past summer, during one of the many get togethers that my close friends and I enjoy, I had made a dessert using crescent rolls cut into 24 individual pieces and baked in a mini muffin tray. The individual pastry cups were topped with whipped mascarpone cheese and berries. The dessert was a big hit, not only for the combination of flavors but also for the simplicity of it being one bite. One piece may have been plenty, but if you wanted more you could take another single serving. No slivers, no samples. It was a nice way to enjoy dessert in a small portion. This, of course, got me thinking about applying this approach to Thanksgiving. With a little bit of research, and a test batch shared with a good friend of mine who has always been one of my favorite taste-testers, I came up with what I think will be the perfect compromise for my family’s Thanksgiving dessert table. 

The recipe below will make 24 individual bite sized servings. You will need one container of crescent rolls for the crust. The dough will get rolled out into one sheet, then cut into 24 individual pieces. Grease a mini muffin tray and place each pastry square into a cup. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the pastry starts to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. The pastry cups taste best immediately after being baked and cooled, and should be filled just before serving. I would not recommend filling the pastry cups too far ahead of time, because they may get soggy. You can bake the pastry cups ahead of time and place them, unfilled, into a container and then refrigerate. You can then warm them up in the oven before adding any filling and serving them.

The two pie fillings that I made are not only Thanksgiving approved, but they are also simple to make and very versatile. The measurements for each filling will make enough for 24 individual pastry cups of each, most likely with leftover filling that can be used in several ways.

The apple pie filling, inspired by a recipe that I found online, is made by cooking diced apple pieces tossed with cinnamon, sea salt, vanilla extract and maple syrup in butter on the stove top for 15 minutes. These spiced apples make for a great pie filling, and they also work well as an addition to yogurt and oatmeal, as a topping for pancakes, waffles or ice cream, or even just on their own as a snack.

The pumpkin pie filling is a no-bake filling that combines canned pumpkin with cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, milk, vanilla pudding mix and whipped topping. The recipe for this pie filling will make more than enough needed. The leftover filling can be used in a no-bake graham cracker crust (chilled for 4 hours, if so), served as a dip alongside spiced wafers, or simply enjoyed on its own as a pumpkin spiced pudding. During my test run, I made 12 apple and 12 pumpkin, with plenty of extra leftover filling of both to enjoy.

Whether you choose either of these suggested pie fillings, or come up with your own individual dessert filling (coconut custard, chocolate or banana cream…just to name a few), this presentation will make dessert fun and manageable for everyone.

To serve, you could either assemble the pastry cups before presenting them ready to eat, or you could place the empty pastry cups and a dish of the fillings that you make on the table and allow your guests to make their own bite sized treats. Whatever method you choose, don’t forget the whipped cream topping!

Apple Pie Filling

Courtesy of JoyFoodSunshine.com

3 apples, diced (suggested apples: Granny Smith, Gala, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious. A variety works very well)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cut apples into small, 1/2 inch cubes. Put apple pieces into skillet with 2 tablespoons water. Cover, cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until apples become slightly soft and water is absorbed. Add butter to the pan, stir until apples are evenly coated. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apples are softened. Add maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract. Stir until well mixed. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Serve warm or chilled!

No-Bake Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
1 3.4-ounce box instant vanilla pudding
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup milk
1 8-ounce container whipped topping

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, combine the pumpkin puree, vanilla pudding mix, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and milk in a mixing bowl until well combined (you can follow the suggested mixing time on the pudding box). Fold in the whipped topping one tablespoon at a time, until you get the desired taste and texture. You can use as much whipped topping as you prefer, up to the entire 8 ounces. Chill for four hours before serving.

Escarole-Wrapped Chicken Meatballs

Growing up in an Italian-American family meant that most major holiday dinners would start off with a soup course. The soup of choice was most likely escarole soup, which is a chicken broth based soup containing carrots, mini meatballs and escarole, sometimes with the addition of acini di pepe pasta. You may also know this soup as Italian Wedding Soup, Italian Holiday Soup, or if you grew up in my old neighborhood you would simply call it S’cadole.

A few years back, when we started our mid-year Memorial Day Friendsgiving dinner tradition with our friends Chrissy, Carl and Lucas, I thought it would be fun to somehow incorporate the spirit and flavor of escarole soup into our menu without actually serving a bowl of piping hot soup on a seasonally warm early summer day. My solution to this was to compact all of the ingredients of the soup – sautéed carrots, celery and onions, chicken, meatballs, broth and escarole – and make a chicken meatball that was seasoned with the carrots, celery and onions, wrapped in boiled escarole leaves. This reimagined version of escarole soup was the perfect compromise for representing a traditional holiday dish during a not-so-traditional time of year.

Of course, this recipe is by no means intended to take the place of a holiday dish that is as traditional and enjoyable as escarole soup. Some traditions are just not meant to be tampered with. However, if you are looking for an alternative to a soup course – especially one that works well as an appetizer and also has the flavors of this traditional and classic soup – then this recipe is one that would work well for your holiday meal!

Escarole-Wrapped Chicken Meatballs
Serves 4-6

1 lb ground chicken
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper
1 head escarole
1-1/2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour olive oil into a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the chopped carrot, onion and celery. Sauté for 10-15 minutes, until soft.

Mix the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg and salt and pepper with the sautéed vegetables. Roll the mixture into meatballs.

Place the meatballs on a sprayed 9’x12” baking dish. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the meatballs start to turn a golden brown.

While the meatballs are baking, you will prepare the escarole. Start by thoroughly washing the escarole. Chop off and discard the bottom portion of the escarole head, keeping the loose leaves. Place the leaves in a pot of boiling water, and boil them for 10-15 minutes. You want to soften the leaves to make them pliable enough to wrap around the meatballs.

Once the meatballs are done baking, let them cool long enough for you to be able to wrap them with the escarole. Carefully wrap a few leaves around each of the meatballs, placing the meatballs back into the baking dish. Pour the chicken broth over the chicken meatballs, then return the baking dish into the oven. Bake for an additional 30 minutes. 

Remove from the oven. Plate the meatballs and drizzle the broth over the meatballs before serving.

Talking Turkey on the Grill

Holidays play an important part in my family’s deep-rooted traditions. A holiday wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t spending time together, most likely while enjoying a beautiful, home-cooked meal. While the ‘big’ holidays are always special, we also look forward to the casual, summertime holidays that are celebrated over grill-outs, cold beers and fireworks. Not only are these holidays fun and exciting, they are also stress-free! We’ve started the tradition a few years back of spending these summer holidays with our close friends, Chrissy, Carl and their son Lucas, who are as near and dear to us as our own family.

A few months back, as we were enjoying a Sunday dinner with our friends, we shared conversation about how much we love Thanksgiving dinner, and how it’s a shame to enjoy such a great meal only once a year. This immediately led us to deciding on having a Friendsgiving Dinner on Memorial Day weekend. The timing would be perfect – it would be exactly 6 months until the actual Thanksgiving holiday, and we would have the rest of the summer to grill up burgers and hot dogs. From there, the wheels were in motion and the menu was planned between all of us…and a new holiday tradition was born!

The Menu

We decided to stick with a traditional Thanksgiving menu: stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, cold apple cider, a pumpkin dessert and, of course…the turkey. Chrissy and Carl also kicked the mood up a notch by digging out their Thanksgiving decorations and playing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD…complete with popcorn as a snack. Since Memorial Day is the official kick-off to summertime (Carl’s awesome mojitos were a nice reminder of this), I thought it would be fun to cook the turkey on the grill. I have always heard that grilled turkey is fantastic, so what better opportunity to give it a go?

*Note – there was one additional item added to the menu, which I will be sharing in the future. Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait!

The Turkey

The first thing that I learned right out of the gate was that whole turkeys aren’t cheap this time of the year (and the local supermarkets aren’t giving away free turkeys with your bonus points). To not risk over-grilling a $45 bird, I decided to just go with a 6lb turkey breast. An additional benefit to going this route is that you can always purchase legs and wings separately, so you can prepare as many as needed. Being that this was my first try at grilling a turkey, I spent a good amount of time doing my research on the proper cooking methods. One of the key steps that I followed was to soak the turkey overnight in a brine. Not only does brining add flavor to the turkey, it also adds extra moisture to avoid the turkey from getting dried out while on the grill.

Brine Recipe
1-1/4 cups coarse salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 gallon cool water
Place water, salt and sugar into a large pot, bring to a slow boil. Remove from heat, let cool completely. Place turkey breast into pot, be sure to cover completely with brine. Cover the pot tightly with a lid, refrigerate for 8-12 hours. Rinse brine off of turkey breast before seasoning.

After rinsing the brine off of the soaked turkey, I brushed it with 1 cup vegetable oil, then coated the entire bird, inside and out, with 1 tbspn Italian seasoning and some salt and pepper.

There are a few methods for grilling a turkey that I found online. The most common method that I found and decided to follow was to cook the turkey sitting over a drip pan, using indirect heat. After warming the grill up to 350˚, I placed the seasoned turkey breast, skin side up, on a rack and placed it inside of a roasting pan. I added 1 cup of water to the roasting pan (adding additional liquid as needed while grilling, to prevent the drippings from burning. I sat the roasting pan over indirect heat and let it go for 1 hour and 45 minutes, until the internal temperature of the turkey was 165˚. After removing it from the grill and letting it rest for 20 minutes, the turkey was ready to be sliced. While the turkey was resting, I put the drippings to good use by making a home-made gravy (click here for the recipe).

If you are looking for a new method for making a turkey, I highly recommend grilling it. There is minimum prep time and effort involved, and if you follow the brining method, you will be sure to end up with a turkey that is flavorful and juicy!

Whole turkey cooked on a gas barbecue, using a roasting pan. Image courtesy of istock.com

What, No Cranberries?!?

Aside from finding out that turkeys are not in large supply this time of year, it was also a challenge to find fresh cranberries for my home made cranberry sauce. Instead of resorting to frozen cranberries, I thought it would be fun to add a bit of a summertime flavor to the table by making Bon Appetit’s Cherry Compote recipe (click here for the recipe). This an excellent substitute to the traditional cranberry sauce. It offered a nice summertime sweet/tart flavor combination, and the leftovers worked very well served over vanilla ice cream!

You Can’t Forget the Pumpkin!

It’s no secret that I am a nut for all things pumpkin. Even though we are not in pumpkin season, we made sure that it would somehow be represented at our Friendsgiving meal. For dessert, my wife Daria made a pumpkin crisp that has been a signature at our family’s Thanksgiving dinner for a few years now. We made sure to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which put this dessert over the top!

Pumpkin Crisp
(Originally posted at myrecipes.com)

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
1 c. of evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 (18.5 oz) pkg butter-flavored yellow cake mix
1 c. melted butter

Optional:
1 c. chopped pecans
Ground nutmeg
Whipped cream
Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350F.  Stir together the first five ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased 13×9 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture (if you wish to add pecans, sprinkle them evenly over cake mix).  Drizzle melted butter over cake mix. Bake at 350F for 60 – 65 minutes or until golden brown**.  Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  IF desired, serve with whipped cream, sprinkle of nutmeg or vanilla ice cream.

** If baking ahead of time, I baked for about 55 min then re-heat again for another 10 min before serving.

I am very fortunate to be thankful for a lot of things in my life, most of all for my family and friends. I am also thankful that we started a new tradition to look forward to every Memorial Day!

Here’s to friends…and Friendsgiving!

Friendsgiving mascots!

The turkey breast, fresh off the grill!

…and dinner is served!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Apples and Kale

Brussels sprouts have quickly become one of my favorite greens to serve as a side dish to a Sunday meal. My Honey Balsamic Brussels Sprouts recipe, which I posted a while back (found here), is also one of the most talked about recipes on my food blog. For this recipe, I’m combining brussels sprouts with chopped apples and kale (another of my favorite green power foods) for a healthy, tasty and vibrant side dish that is perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.

Because kale can toast up pretty quickly in the oven, you do not need to add it to this dish until the last 7-10 minutes of baking. By simply layering the kale on top of the already baked sprouts and apple mixture, the kale will toast up nicely, while absorbing the flavors of the other ingredients. Once removed from the oven, gently fold in the kale, plate it, and serve it up with all of your other favorite Thanksgiving sides!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Apples and Kale

1 12oz package brussels sprouts, tips removed, then sliced in half
2 apples – peeled, cored and cut into 3/4 inch chunks (Macintosh or Granny Smith work well)
2 tbspn olive oil
1 tbspn honey
1/2 tspn onion powder
handful of chopped kale
zest plus juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425˚. Mix olive oil, honey and onion powder together. Place brussels sprouts and apples into a baking dish. Toss with oil and honey mixture. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until sprouts are softened. Remove from oven, layer the top with kale, place back in oven for another 7-10 minutes, or until the kale starts to crisp. Remove from oven, mix together. Top with zest and juice of one lemon. Season with salt and pepper.

Mixing the brussels sprouts with the chopped apples and the dressing.

Layering the kale on top of the baked sprouts and apple mixture.

The finished dish, plated and ready to be served.