Happy Belated Thanksgiving you guys! I had a very relaxing long weekend, and my appetite returned just in time for me to feast. I wasn’t feeling so hot when I returned from my 48 hour anxiety attack, but I just took it easy last week and I was in fine form on Sunday night. My Mom’s turkey dinner is like my death row/desert island last/only meal. I love it and it makes me so happy.  

It was so nice to be home, eating delicious homemade food (instead of questionable chewy chicken, ew), and my parents even sat through two hours of Kim Kardashian’s wedding with me, after everyone else went home. It’s the little things that I’m thankful for, and that includes leggings that allow for maximum turkey consumption and brainless reality TV programming, in addition to all the big important things like my family and friends. Shout outs to Alice, my 1st year roommate from Laurier, who was in town over the weekend. We had an excellent catch-up lunch/gelato date, which revealed some controversial views on UK’s sweetheart: “Screw Adele and her depressing songs about relationships! Who wants to listen that that?” Amazing.

So, the whole time I was away I was brainstorming my Thanksgiving dessert ideas, and the idea of a Fall Trio was born. I had it all planned out: three fall flavours (apple/cinnamon, pumpkin, maple), three textures (crumble-y, cakey, creamy), three shapes (square, circle, triangle). So nerdy, I know, but this is what happens when you’re on an island eating fish and rice for the 14th day in a row, because everything else on the hotel menu is gross.

I was channeling Richard BLAIS as I plated my desserts, even though I didn’t use liquid nitrogen to make anything. So how did it all taste? The Pumpkin Whoopie Pie with Cream Cheese Filling was my favourite, and the cookie was nice and spicy because of a whole tablespoon of cloves in the batter. I also made these Apple Crumble Squares Triangles (I cut the squares too big) that were really good too – shortbread base, caramelized apples, crumble topping. I left it in the oven for the total recommended baking time and the bottom was a little burnt, so I would reduce that next time. The triangle is a Maple Nutmeg Cream Tart which I was not a fan of, but that my family ate anyway. They are the best 🙂

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Source: Baked:New Frontiers in Baking

Ingredients

Cookies

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ginger

1 tbsp cloves

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups chilled pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing

3 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves together.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar and oil until combined. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk again. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until everything is mixed together.
3. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until everything is combined. It will look like cake batter.
4. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and use a small ice cream scoop or cookie scoop or just a spoon to drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the sheets, about 1″ apart (they will puff up and spread a bit). Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into a cookie comes out clean.  Let cool completely.
5. For icing, mix everything together until smooth. I put my icing into a plastic bag, snipped off a corner, and piped it onto half the cookies, then stuck a partner on top and smooshed them together a little until the icing spread to the edges. Store the cookies in the fridge for up to 3 days before serving.