Apple Cranberry Cobbler

It's the last day of November. Which means a couple of things:

First, it means the premiere of Top Chef All-Stars tomorrow night. A couple of years ago I thought about how they should make a Top Chef All-Stars, and now I can't believe my wish is coming true.

I'm sure I'm getting my hopes up too high like I did with Top Chef Desserts, but I'm still hoping it will be really good. What happened with Top Chef Desserts? Was that show kind of a disaster or was it just me? Don't get me wrong, I mean, I watched every single episode. I didn't really care who won in the end. Meh.

However, I do care about who wins Top Chef All-Stars. I think the top contenders will be Tiffani from season one, Marcel from season two, Dale from season four, and... gosh, I don't know! They're all so good! I always felt like Tiffani should have won the first season, so maybe this is her year.

Man, I'm a nerd.

Where was I?



Oh, and the end of November means it's time to begin your Christmas shopping if you haven't already. This year I vow to start shopping NOW and not wait until the week before Christmas. This year I vow not buy almost everyone gift cards. Gift cards are the easy way out. Then again, I love gift cards.

I've been asking every family member what they want for Christmas, but I can't get a straight answer out of them. Nobody really wants to come out and say what they want. I guess because it seems selfish? That's how I feel when I ask for something I want. It does kind of take the fun out of Christmas when you give somebody exactly what they asked for. But it's practical.

That foot massage bath I bought for mom one year? Failure.
The Atari video game I bought for my dad one year? Total failure.

So family, boyfriend, friends, pets, please tell me what you want for Christmas.

Otherwise I'll buy you something cooking related.

Cast iron skillets and silicon pastry brushes for everyone!! Yaaay.



The gift of dessert is a great one, don't you think? Maybe I won't give my family a dessert for Christmas, but I would like to bake some desserts for some family friends.

Probably not Apple Cranberry Cobbler, though. I was thinking more on the lines of cookies. This cobbler was very, very good - I made it about two weeks ago, I believe.



It all began when I saw bags of cranberries at the store. Cranberries are so pretty, bright and shiny and I can never resist them. I think they're underappreciated - you can use them in so many things besides cranberry sauce.

So this is only the first of many cranberry desserts still to come. I have to use cranberries while they're in season, otherwise I'll regret it.



First you combine apples, sugar, and spices in a bowl and set it aside while you give the cranberries a quick cook in a little bit of sugar. The fruit is mixed together in a 13x9-inch baking dish before topping it with dough mixture. I really loved the dough I used for this cobbler. It's biscuit-like and made with butter, cream cheese, eggs, milk, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

You drop spoonfuls of dough over the fruit before baking for 45 minutes. Then you should probably let the cobbler cool a while before serving it with vanilla ice cream.

Or you could eat if for breakfast which is what I did.


Apple Cranberry Cobbler
Printable Recipe

6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground clove

3 cups cranberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 ounces cold reduced fat cream cheese, cut into chunks
2 large eggs
2/3 cup milk

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter bottom and sides of a 13x9-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, stir together apples, 1/2 cup sugar, and spices until well combined; set aside.

Stir together cranberries and 1/3 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat; cook 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until cranberries start to break down and get juicy.

Pour apple mixture and cranberry mixture into baking dish and stir until combined.

To make the biscuit topping, in a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt until combined. Knead in butter and cream cheese using fingertips or a pastry blender until well incorporated and mixture starts to clump together. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until well combined; add wet ingredient to dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

Drop spoonfuls of biscuit topping evenly over fruit. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Makes 8 servings

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Helllooo! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. Did you take part in Black Friday shopping? I stayed home and watched Mad Men, read a book, and it was perfect. Later on Eric and I did venture out to Target and the mall... but only for a few minutes.

I had a great Thanksgiving. It was a gas... and I mean a gas. Heh heh heh. Long story.



I woke up, got ready, and then made corn casserole. I used Paula Deen's recipe. It's the easiest thing in the world to make. You just mix together butter, sour cream, corn, and cornbread mix, and bake it for a while before topping it with cheese. I thought it was pretty good, but I think it could be better. I think I should have stirred some cheese into the filling instead of just topping it with cheese. And I don't think some bacon could hurt either.

Here's what it looked like. Eric drove to my parents' house and I held the blazing hot corn casserole in my lap the whole time.


It snowed a little bit on Thanksgiving. The night before we had tornadoes. You gotta love Missouri weather.




We didn't wait too long before digging into the food. My parents outdid themselves... they always do. Everything was SO delicious. Good job, guys! Thank you so much!

Eric's favorite Thanksgiving dish is corn casserole. I had to make it for my pumpkin. Awww.


Look at Mom hard at work. There's like, ten things in that oven.


Rolls. After nine years of eating these rolls, I'm a bit sick of them. (They come from where I work at.) Maybe next year I'll bake some parker house rolls.


Dad roasted two turkey breasts instead of making a whole turkey. I think it was the best turkey he's ever made. It was moist and delicious.


Traditional sage-cornbread stuffing/dressing.


Mashed potatoes & gravy.


Sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows! My favorite!




This was a whipped cream salad my mom made. It had apples, grapes, whipped cream, pecans, and mini marshmallows in it. We called it "Linda's Deelite."


My plate. I did my best to finish it, and I almost did.


But then I started feeling ill from eating too much. Eric had the same problem.
We held hands through the pain.


We rested a while, discussed the latest South Park-Food Network episode, and then played a mini pool tournament. This is my sister Hannah in action. She's a better pool player than I am.


I'm so thankful for my family. I love them.


I'm thankful that my brother in law is alive. I'm thankful that he was able to spend Thanksgiving with us. It truly is a miracle that he's doing so well.
I'm also thankful for my nephew, Jayden, and my new niece, baby Maddy.


Of course I'm thankful for this guy. :)


AND I'm thankful for you guys! And dessert.






This is my mystery dessert I made. I promise I'll be able to tell you about it soon. But not yet...




I made these chocolate pecan pie bars this year, because I felt like bars would be easier for people to eat, and they could try a little dessert without overdoing it. Chocolate pecan pie is my favorite, so it made sense to make the pie in bar form.


The crust is not a pie crust, but not really a cookie, either. It's made out of butter, cream cheese, flour and confectioners' sugar. After a quick bake, the crust is topped with a mixture of eggs, corn syrup, melted chocolate, bourbon, brown sugar, vanilla, and pecans. I browned some butter and then toasted the pecans in the butter. That's the best decision I've ever made.

These were good. Sadly, I didn't get enough of them, though. I was too full and only ate half of one. Well, half of one and a slice of pecan pie. And a small slice of mystery dessert.

And that was my Thanksgiving! Now it's time for Christmas. Bring on the egg nog, candy canes, Christmas popcorn tins, gingerbread men and Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes. Hooray!


Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars
Printable Recipe

Crust
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups finely chopped pecans, toasted
3 large eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chunks, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13x9-inch baking dish with foil; coat foil with cooking spray.

To make the crust, in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese until creamy. Beat in butter until well combined and creamy. Beat in confectioners' sugar and salt until combined. Beat in flour until just combined. Pat dough into bottom of baking dish to form a crust. Bake 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown around edges.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; cook about 2-3 minutes, whisking frequently, until butter browns ands starts to foam. Stir in pecans and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove pan from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs until combined. Whisk in brown sugar, corn syrup, bourbon, vanilla and salt until well combined. Whisk in melted chocolate until combined. Stir in pecans until combined.

Pour filling onto crust. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cool completly on a wire rack before lifting out foil from dish and slicing into bars.

I can't remember the yield. I believe it made about 20 bars.

Persimmon Cookies

Ahhhhh! It's the day before Thanksgiving! Do you know how excited I am? I bet you feel the same way.

I love, love Thanksgiving. I look forward to it all year. I love hanging out with my family, relaxing, and of course, eating. I have a feeling my sisters and I are going to be fighting for the last of the sweet potatoes. :)
You're GOING DOWN, Rachel!

I'm looking forward to the sweet potatoes, dressing, and pecan pie the most. Oh, and gravy. Don't get me started on how much I like gravy.

I have to wait tables tonight, and it's going to be PACKED. It's always really busy on the day before Thanksgiving. People come in to eat and buy our rolls. We sell thousands of dozens of rolls on this day. I think I'll get out pretty late, which means I'm going to be baking desserts into the night. Ha. Not fun.

I have a top secret cake I'm baking (you'll learn more about this in the future), and I'm going to be baking some chocolate pecan pie bars. I think I'm going to hand over corn casserole duty to Eric since he'll be home tonight.

Anyway, I'm very excited and can't wait for tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends! I'll be thinking of everyone!

Let's get to the giveaway winner. Thank you all so much for entering the giveaway! I had fun reading through all of your comments. You guys are bringing all kinds of things to your Thanksgiving dinner!

Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed potatoes, Pecan pie, Pumpkin pie, Green bean casserole, Wine, BEER, Tofurky, Crack pie, Pumpkin whoopie pies, Cranberry crostata, Eggnog ice cream, Spiced applesauce cake, and my personal favorite - stretchy pants.

How brilliant is that? I think we should all wear stretchy pants to Thanksgiving dinner. I'm considering going to Motherhood Maternity today and picking out a pair of jeans with an elastic waistband.

The winner of the giveaway is...


#25 - Lucie! Oh la la! Congratulations, Lucie. Email me with your shipping information and you'll be sent the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook and cookies shortly!

Thanks to Tate's Bake Shop for sponsoring the giveaway! It was a lot of fun. I hope someday I'll get to visit the bakery myself. Or what if you could work there? That would be fun.



There are a lot of recipes I want to make in the cookbook, but I went with an easy recipe for today, because I know there will be lots of baking tonight. Oh, and I had this to use.



Persimmon! Isn't it gorgeous? I've never in my life tasted a persimmon until today. I kind of like it. I'm still getting used to the flavor. I don't think persimmons taste like anything that exists. Mango? No. Tomato? No. Cantaloupe? No. Persimmons are sweet, a little spicy, very juicy and soft like a mango. Perfect for autumn... they taste like autumn. Does that make sense?



I used this Hachiya persimmon to make a pulp for a recipe in the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook:
Persimmon cookies!



I followed the recipe exactly from the cookbook, aren't you proud of me? This recipe is incredibly easy and quick! You have delicious persimmon cookies in thirty minutes after mixing up a batter with butter, sugar, flour, spices, orange zest, vanilla, walnuts and dried cranberries.

I thought it was a mistake in the cookbook when it said to bake the cookies 20-25 minutes... I've never baked a cookie that long in my life. They turned out golden brown with a crisp outer shell and moist inside. I would still keep an eye on them, though. They might be done for some of you in fifteen minutes.

Now can someone tell me what that old wifes tale is about persimmons, winter, knives, forks and spoons? Did I make that up? Am I crazy? I looked for a fork, knife or spoon in the center of my persimmon and didn't see one.


Persimmon Cookies
“Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. Copyright © 2005 by Kathleen King. All rights reserved.”
Printable Recipe

1 1/4 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp (about 2 or 3 persimmons)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup walnuts, chopped fine
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpat.

For the persimmon puree, remove the stems from the persimmons and cut the fruit into chunks. Puree the chunks in a food processor till they are smooth.

Cream the butter and sugars till creamy. Add the orange rind, egg, vanilla, and persimmon pulp, and mix it. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix it all together. Add the walnuts and cranberries. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix it together until it is combined.

Drop the dough, using an ice cream scoop or two tablespoons, onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the size. The cookies will spring back slightly when they are done.

Makes 34 cookies

Cookie Monday

About a week ago I was craving some brownies. I wanted them chewy and crusty and I wanted there to be Whoppers in them.

I learned some very important lessons that night.

#1 - You can't bake with Whoppers because they turn into rocks.

#2 - Don't put too much brownie batter in a pan because it expands more than you think.

#3 - I hate cleaning up messes in the oven.



Hot mess.


Brownie failure.



It was not a good night of baking, as you can see. Luckily I had a backup dessert.

Cookies from Tate's Bake Shop!!

I was overjoyed when Elizabeth from Tate's Bake Shop offered me a sampler pack of their cookies. Elizabeth was aware of my obsession for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and wanted me to try the chocolate chip cookie from Tates.

I know of Tate's, I think mostly because I've heard/read Ina Garten mention it before on her show and cookbooks. I also checked out the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook from the library years and years ago.

Tate's Bake Shop is a bakery based in Southampton, N.Y., founded by Kathleen Keen. The bakery sells breakfast goods, pies, and squares, but is known for its cookies - chocolate chip, in particular. Tate's cookies are thin, crisp, and buttery, with just a hint of caramel flavor. The cookies have been featured in Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.



Elizabeth not only sent me cookies, she sent me a signed copy of the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook! I absolutely love it; it's full of simple recipes for cakes, pies, muffins and cookies - even their famous chocolate chip cookie recipe. I can't wait to bake some of the recipes from it. I think I'll bake from it tomorrow, actually!





So let's get to the cookies... I received a sampler with chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. And sample I did. Ohhh my. Eric did a lot of sampling, too.





First up, chocolate chip.




Aren't they gorgeous? They're deep golden brown in color, crisp, light and airy. There's the perfect amount of chocolate in each cookie to not overwhelm the cookie's flavor. The cookies taste like caramel and butter.. they taste like butter, yet they're light.



Now I'm starting to reconsider what the perfect chocolate chip cookie is. I'm more of a big, dense, soft, gooey chocolate chip cookie kind-of-girl. But these cookies are so good and perfect!

I just don't know what to say. Life as I know it will never be the same. I don't know who I am anymore.




Oatmeal Raisin.


I love a good oatmeal raisin cookie; they're so homey and delicious. These cookies were delicious, too. The oats and raisins were subtle and the cookie had more of a chew to it.



White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut.


Oh my stars I love these cookies. I think I may prefer these over the chocolate chip. I'm nuts about macadamia nuts.




Bravo Kathleen King and Tate's Bake Shop! I'm a fan for life. I love that the cookies are all natural and preservative free - that makes them winners to me.

Now it's YOUR chance to win some Tate's cookies! One lucky Sugar Plum reader will win a Tate's Bake Shop cookbook and a six-box cookie sampler pack.

To enter the giveaway, just tell me one thing you're making or bringing for Thanksgiving dinner in the comments section. If you're not from the States, just pretend! Haha. Be sure to leave some type of contact information if you don't have a blog or website.

To double your chances, become a fan of Tate's Bake Shop on Facebook, and after doing so, leave another comment telling me that you did. Come onnn - you know you're on Facebook all day anyway. You might as well "Like" Tate's Bake Shop. I keep putting an 'e' on the end of Shop. Like it's an old timey ice cream shoppe.

Let's see... the giveaway shall end Tuesday, November 23 at 11:59 PM. Mmkay?
Then I'll announce the winner (chosen by Random.org) on Wednesday's blog.

Also, Use the discount code “cookie” to get 15% off at Tate’s Bake Shop’s online store from now until Dec. 31, 2010.

Ready, set, go!