Thanksgiving Treats!

It is surreal to be home for Thanksgiving after being away for three months for my first semester in college! Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite holidays to spend time with family, and after being away at school, I was especially looking forward to sharing food and fun times with my relatives. I also like getting together for the holidays because it gives me an excuse to bake! With little time to pick out a recipe and start baking, I turned to my Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. If you followed my blog over the summer, you know that many of my posts came from this this trusty cookbook. Well, I am pleased to say, I ended up with another fool proof, delicious dessert! I knew that my other relatives would be bringing fruit pies and pumpkin desserts, so I opted for the chocolate brownie route. But these are no ordinary brownies, no, they are made with caramel, peanut butter chips, and toasted pecans. So even after filling up on turkey and casseroles galore, my relatives were able to make room for these decadent brownies.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES WITH CARAMEL, PEANUT BUTTER, AND PECANS
printable recipe

CRUST
2 1/4 graham cracker crumbs (about 16 full graham crackers)
1 1/2 sticks butter (melted)

CARAMEL FIlLLING
1 pound caramels
1/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup pecans (coarsely chopped and toasted in the oven at 350  degrees for about 10 minutes).

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

BROWNIE
1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease 9x13 inch pan.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into greased pan to serve as crust.

Melt the caramels and heavy cream over low heat until smooth. Pour over crust.

Sprinkle toasted pecans and peanut butter chips over caramel.

Melt unsweetened chocolate and butter in medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Pour chocolate into medium bowl and add sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until combined.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the pan over the other ingredients.

Bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe from: The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

My mom and sister also took on a baking project of their own that was too cute not to share! These turkeys are made out of candy and Oreos, and they are, of course, a Pinterest find!

Enjoy!

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

I feel like I have been baking up a storm, but my lack of blog posts makes it look otherwise! I made this butter pecan ice cream when I first got my ice cream maker. It is a classic and one of my personal favorites!

BUTTER PECAN ICE CREAM
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup whole mile
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chopped pecans



In a small saucepan over medium heat, boil brown sugar, water, and salt. Once boiling, continue heating for 2 minutes while continually stirring.

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Slowly add half of the melted sugar mixture to the eggs while whisking. This is called tempering the eggs and allows them to heat up before combining them with all of the hot sugar mixture.

Pour all of the egg mixture into the saucepan with the brown sugar mixture. Continually stir over medium heat until the mixture reaches 170 degrees. Since this recipe contains egg whites, over cooking will yield large pieces of cooked egg in the finished product.

Remove from heat and add the unsalted butter to the sauce pan and stir until milted.

Refrigerate the mixture until cold. Add the vanilla extract and whole milk.

Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the rest of the mix.

Freeze in ice cream maker, adding pecans right before taking out of the mixer.

Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Enjoy!

Nectarine Scones with Dried Cranberries, Spiced Pecans, and Cream Cheese Glaze

I knew that I wanted to make scones, but I could not decide what to put in them. I looked up basic scone ingredients and found Paula Deen’s Sour Cream Scone recipe. Using the ingredients from this recipe I looked around my kitchen and found some fresh nectarines. I have never baked with nectarines, but I love using peaches, so I figured these nectarines would be perfect. I also love dried cranberries, so I figured they would pair nicely with the nectarines. Finally for a little bit of crunch, I decided to add some chopped pecans. When I pulled the pecans out, I quickly remembered the Lee Brothers’ Spiced Pecans recipe that we always make for Christmas. I thought it would be interesting to use the spiced pecans in my scone recipe to add a little spice to the sweetness created by the peaches and dried cranberries. Boy did this turn out to be a dangerously delicious recipe! Too often scones become dry and bland, but these were completely the opposite. They were moist, dense (but still slightly airy), and a wonderful combination of sweet and a kick of spice. While the recipe does have several steps, each adds a unique component to the recipe. If you choose, the scones would probably be good with regular pecans instead of making the spiced pecans, but if your kitchen is already a mess, why miss out? These scones are perfect to serve at a brunch, and I thoroughly enjoyed mine with a nice glass of orange juice!

SCONE DOUGH:

4 cups of flour

10 tbsp. butter

6 oz. light yogurt (I used coconut vanilla)

½ cup light sour cream

6 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup Craisins

1 cup diced nectarines

Spiced Pecans (see recipe below)

SPICED PECANS:

1 cup pecan halves

1/3 tsp. nutmeg

1/3 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 tsp. ginger

1/3 tsp. paprika

1/3 tsp. cayenne

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. sugar

2 tbsp. butter

CRUMB TOPPING:

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

¼ cup brown sugar         

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup roughly chopped pecans

3 tbsp. butter

¼ cup milk

CREAM CHEESE DRIZZLE:

4 tbsp. cream cheese

¾ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp. milk

The butter and flour mixture should look like this.

First you will need to make the spiced pecans:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Roughly chop the pecans halves. In a separate bowl, mix all of the spices together in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is completely melted, add the spice mix and stir well. Pour the butter/spice mixture over the chopped pecans and use a wooden spoon to stir. Spread the pecans on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let the pecans cool before using.

The finished dough.

Next, the crumb topping: Roughly chop the pecan halves. Combine with flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Melt the butter in the microwave. Pour the butter over the rest of the ingredients and use a fork to stir everything together.

Now to make the scone dough:

About to go into the oven

Combine the chilled butter and flour. You can do this in a food processor or using a fork.  The resulting mixture should be well combined and crumbly with no big chunks of butter.  Next add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl before adding to the dry ingredients. Add the sour cream and yogurt and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Add the diced peaches, dried cranberries, and spiced pecans. Mix until well combined.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a spoon to put the dough onto the baking sheets so that there are 12 equal sized scones. You can flatten them slightly with the spoon to help ensure even baking. In the same bowl you used to melt the butter for the crumb topping, pour in ¼ cup milk. There will be some butter left in the bowl from melting the butter for the crumb topping and this is a good thing. Use a spoon to cover the tops of the scones with a light milk/butter wash. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the scones. Bake for 12-17 minutes.

Combine all of the ingredients for the cream cheese drizzle and use a mixer to achieve a smooth consistency. Pour the glaze into a plastic bag and cut the corner off. Once the scones are out of the oven and completely cool, drizzle the cream cheese glaze over the top of the scones.

Makes 12 large scones.

The final product! Yum :)