After a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, who has room for dessert? Everybody!
The best thing about Thanksgiving is that the food takes center stage. The only thing you have to do for the entire holiday is eat. Enjoy a mid-day turkey dinner with all the fixings, watch some football on TV, take a walk, take a nap, and then dive into dessert.
Pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving is a must. You can jazz it up with whipped cream that's been blended with honey and sprinkle toasted almonds on top for the perfect balance of tradition and something new.
An apple dessert, pecan pie, and old-fashioned bread pudding with bourbon sauce are nice compliments to a Thanksgiving dessert table.
Old Fashioned Bread Pudding
- 1 teaspoons sugar
- 1 cups milk
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-11/2 quarts cubed bread
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Sauce:
- 1 stick butter
- 1 pound powered sugar
- 1/2 cup bourbon
Whisk sugar into milk until dissolved. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to whisk until combined. Place bread cubes into mixture and let soak several hours or overnight. Pour into a glass dish. Sprinkle with raisins and cinnamon and push them into the mixture. Bake in a preheated 250-degree oven for 1-1 1/2 hours. To make sauce, melt butter and add powdered sugar. Whip bourbon into mixture and cook until sauce reaches desired consistency. To serve, place a serving of bread pudding into a bowl and ladle sauce over it while still warm.
Pumpkin Pie with Honey Cream Topping
- 2 unbaked pie crusts
- 4 cups (2 1-pound cans) pumpkin
- 1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon mace
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 eggs, slightly beaten
- 3 cups evaporated milk
Combine pumpkin and sugar. Blend in spices and salt. Mix in eggs. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into 2 unbaked pie shells. Bake 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Chill pies in refrigerator before topping.
Honey Cream Topping
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons honey
- Slivered almonds, lightly toasted
Whip cream in chilled bowl with chilled beaters until stiff peaks form. Blend in honey. Spread over pies and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Makes 2 pies
Pecan Pie
- 8 whole eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 cups light corn syrup
- 3 cups pecan pieces
Make or buy 2 pie crusts. Chill them in the refrigerator or freezer.
For the pecan pie filling, in a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and egg yolks and whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla, brown sugar, salt and melted butter and whisk until well blended. Slowly blend in the corn syrup and mix well.
Divide the pecan pieces between two chilled pie shells. Divide the filling between the two pies. Place the pies on baking sheets and bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 300 and bake until the pies have set and the center puffs up a little, approximately 45-60 minutes. Makes two pies.
Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce
- 21/2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup oil
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups diced cored peeled Granny Smith apples (about 3 large)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- Powdered sugar
- Caramel Sauce (see recipe)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; set aside. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Whisk remaining 2 cups sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, orange juice, orange peel and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in flour mixture. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle half of apples over batter, then half of chopped walnuts and half of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Spoon remaining batter over. Sprinkle remaining apples, walnuts and cinnamon-sugar mixture over. Place cake in a preheated 350-degree oven and bake for 55 minutes. Cover pan loosely with foil and continue baking until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 30 minutes longer. Cool cake in pan on rack 10 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely. Transfer to platter. Dust cake with powdered sugar. Serve with warm Caramel Sauce.
Caramel Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, reduce heat to medium-high; boil until reduced to 2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Whisk in vanilla. Cool. Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill. Stir over low heat just until lukewarm.
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