ol' fashioned thanksgiving

to each his/her own

Cabin fever

With winter around the corner, cabin fever will be setting in very soon.  Thanks to our good friends at The Village Idiot I have had the pleasure of tasting Cabin Fever Maple Whiskey, which leaves me thankful for the change of seasons, crunchy leaves and chilly nights.  A perfect excuse for drinking at breakfast.

Thanksgiving: Sweet potato pie

 God, how do we eat pie after Thanksgiving dinner?  We seem to conjure up eating super powers that enable us to ingest large quantities of a variety of food and still look at pie with gleaming eyes.  Pie eating is part of the great American tradition of over stuffing ourselves just as the Pilgrims would have done.  Pumpkin pie is the standard but why not offer sweet potato pie as well.  Why stop at one pie......really.

Sweet Potato Pie  

• pie dough (recipe not included.  Most people seem to have their own personal favorite recipe.)
• 2 medium or 1 large sweet potato (2 cups worth of potato)
• 1/2 c. cane sugar
• 1/2 c. sucanot
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs + 1 egg white + 1 egg for crust
• 1/2 cup skim milk (if you would like to make this dairy free, use Silk soy creamer)
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 T cornstrach

Wash the sweet potatoes, dry, and wrap in foil. Place the potatoes in a 400 degree oven and bake until soft (test by piercing with a knife.) When potatoes are done, remove from the oven, unwrap and allow to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

While potatoes cool, roll out our your pie dough and place into a 8" pie plate. Finish the top edge so it looks pretty and then put it in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

Remove the flesh of the potatoes from the skin and measure out 2 cups of potato. Place potato in a food processor along with sugars, spices, and vanilla and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the food processor at some point to make sure it all gets combined. Now, add and eggs and process for 1 minute. Next, add the milk and almond milk and pulse until combined. Finally, add the cornstarch and process for just about 30 seconds. Whisk the remaining egg and brush over edges of the crust.  Pour the filling into the prepared crust.

Place pie in the oven and bake for about an hour or until set but slightly jiggly in the center. You will likely have to loosely cover the pie with foil after the first 30 minutes to prevent the crust from burning.

Allow pie to cool before cutting.

Chocolate Pumpkin Ale Cake

 

What is a girl to do with an open can of pumpkin puree and half of a six pack of Saranac's Pumpkin Ale?  Bake a cake, naturally.  Stout cake is my favorite cake of all time and it's fall and I adore pumpkin, so you see how this came about.  It turned out even better than I had imagined though not as pumpkiny as I had anticipated.  It's more like an ultra moist chocolate cake with hints of fall.

chocolate pumpkin ale cake
2 c. Pumpkin Ale
1 c. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. cocoa powder

2 c. unbleached flour
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 T baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 eggs
4 egg whites
2 c. natural cane sugar
2c. sucanot
2 1/2 c. pumpkin puree

cream cheese frosting.......if you need a recipe just ask, otherwise I don't feel like writing it

Grease/oil and flour 2 deep 8" round pans or two standard 9" pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Simmer beer and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter has melted.  Then dump the cocoa powder into the beer and butter, and whisk until smooth.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.

Beat eggs and egg whites until bubbles start hanging out on top.  Next add the sugars and beat on med. high until thick and light colored.  Next add the pumpkin puree and mix on low just until incorporated.  Now, add a bit of the beer mixture and mix on low (this will warm up the eggs so that they won't scramble as they would if you just dumped the whole thing in at one time.)  Begin adding beer, slowly, to the egg/pumpkin mixture until it's all one color.  It's time to add the dry ingredients.  Stop the mixer and carefully toss in the dry ingredients.  Mix on low until flour is mostly combined, stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then increase the speed and mix vigourously for 20 seconds(ish). 

Pour batter into prepared pans, and place in the preheated oven.  Bake for 35ish minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Try not to open the oven until the 20 minute mark.  Surely, the cake shouldn't be done until 30 min. at the least.  Check at 35 and bake further if needed.  When the sides of the cake pull away from the pan, that's another clue that it's done.  It should also bounce back when poked in the center.  Cool for about 12 min. then remove from pans onto a cooling rack.  Once the cake is cool, not just "it doesn't burn my mouth or my hands while I eat it" cool, but cool to the touch, which might take, ugh, a few hours (best to chill in fridge for a bit if you are short on time) frost, bring to room temp. and serve.  I opted for the rustic, middle and top but no side frosting look.  Good idea for this cake so that you don't overshadow the cake with frosting.