Thanksgiving dessert: Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

For my second homemade dessert for Thanksgiving I wanted something with chocolate. Traditional Thanksgiving desserts do not normally contain chocolate (at least not the ones I always had growing up), but I love chocolate. I came across a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars (Pinterest, of course). Tada!

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 8oz bag pecan halves
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I think I just used more regular sized chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan or line with foil and then grease.
In a large bowl, use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter, sugar and flour together until crumbly. Press the crust into the pan and bake for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder in a small bowl and set aside.
Once the crust has finished baking, remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 cups chocolate chips and the pecans.
Pour the chocolate condensed milk mixture evenly over the top. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 15 to 18 minutes.
Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips (mini or regular).
Cool bars on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container.  

Fondue!

One of our many wonderful wedding presents was a fondue pot. At least once a year I like to pull it out to justify keeping it. When you move so much you want to make sure that everything you have is useful. For Valentine's Day dessert (which we didn't end up having until the day after Valentine's Day) I decided to make fondue. I chose a recipe called Flaming Turtle Chocolate Fondue from the blog For the Love of Food. It was soooooo yummy! I did not get any pictures, but I wanted to share the recipe with you anyway.

Ingredients
12oz milk chocolate (chips or finely chopped)
2 Tablespoons heavy cream (I actually used half & half and I ended up using more than 2T)
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping (see below for a homemade recipe)
1 Tablespoon rum
3 Tablespoons pecans, chopped
Fondue dippers, examples: pound cake, strawberries, apples, pineapple, marshmallows, pretzels

I always melt the chocolate in the fondue pot, but you can do it over the stove or in the microwave. Once your melted chocolate/cream mixture is all melted and smooth, make sure it is in your fondue pot. Then pour the caramel into the center of the mixture. Do not stir.

Add the rum and ignite carefully using a lighter. This was the fun part!

Allow the flame to burn out and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with pecans. Keep fondue warm over low heat.

Caramel Topping Recipe

Ingredients
5 Tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup half & half
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter and brown sugar in large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth. Add half & half, then salt; simmer 4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

We used the leftover caramel over the leftover pound cake, but it would be amazing on all kinds of things. Or by itself. :)

Bread Machine: Caramel Apple Pecan Bread

I apologize in advance, but I do not have any pictures to share.

We decided to make some bread specifically to use for French toast. I gave Charles a few options from the Betty Crocker bread machine cookbook and he chose Caramel Apple Pecan Bread. I have to say he made an excellent choice.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb loaf
1 cup water (of course we had to add a little extra because it is so dry here)
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup chopped unpeeled apple (like a Granny Smith)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans (it says toasted, but we didn't toast ours)

2 lb loaf
1 1/4 cup water
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups bread flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
2/3 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Place all ingredients, except apple and pecans, in bread machine pan in order recommended by manufacturer. Add apple and pecans at the Raisin/Nut signal.

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Light crust color. Do not use delay option.

I used the Betty Crocker Big Red recipe for french toast. I am a recipe follower, but french toast batter can usually be done without one. I did add cinnamon to the batter.

Pecan Pie Bread Pudding

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently made bread pudding. It is not the first time, but my first bread pudding was made with croissants. From what I remember it tasted good but was really rich. And coming from me that means the average person would go into a sugar coma from eating it.

This time I gave Charles two recipes to choose from. One had a ton more ingredients which probably means it was extra yummy. He did not choose that one. He chose Pecan Pie Bread Pudding. The recipe is from Something Swanky. 

Mine did not turn out like what I imagine bread pudding to be. It was VERY dry. I may have used a little  more bread than called for, but I don't know if less bread would have helped out that much.

Picture borrowed from Something Swanky

Ingredients
8 cups bite-sized bread pieces
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
 1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup pecan, halved and chopped
(I also threw in about a cup of chocolate chips because I love chocolate)

Prepare an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish by spraying with cooking spray. Place all of the bread pieces into the baking dish. Pour the melted butter over the bread.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the pecans (and chocolate chips if you are like me).

Pour evenly over the bread pieces. Use a spatula to push the bread pieces around in the dish until all are coated in the syrupy mixture. Bake at 375º for 45 minutes.

Chocolate Pecan Pies

I was in the mood for some pecan pie the other week. I checked Pinterest for a good recipe and came across one from Paula Deen. I figured a full-figured Southern lady like herself would make a pretty good pecan pie. And even better it was for Chocolate pecan pie.

So I made it... I have issues either with my oven or my pie pan. My pies usually come out runny. I should have remembered this and lowered the amount of corn syrup and should have baked it longer. But I didn't. The pie tasted good. It was just really runny.

Here's a link to her recipe.

This week I tried a different recipe. I used my good ol' Betty Crocker Big Red cookbook. Their recipe is for traditional pecan pie, but I added some chocolate chips to mimick the Paula Deen recipe. I reduced the corn syrup a little and turned the oven up 5 more degrees. It came out a little more brown than I was going for, but it tastes very good. The pecans, because they were mixed into the syrup/sugar mixture, have a nice crunch on them--similar to the Nutty Bavarian nuts. Yum! I think I'll stick with this recipe from here on out.

Betty Crocker Pecan Pie Recipe

one crust (if you're a follower, you know I used Immaculate Baking crust)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup pecan halves or broken pieces
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line pie pan with crust

Beat sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and eggs in bowl with wire whisk or hand beater until well blended. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour into pie pan.

Bake 40-50 minutes or until center is set.

While reading further down on the page, you can make it "Kentucky" style by adding 2 Tablespoons bourbon and 1 bag chocolate chips.

Special Broccoli

As promised, I am going to share the recipe for Broccoli with Pecan Brown Butter.

Ingredients:
Kosher salt
2 pounds broccoli, cut into florets
1 stick salted butter (I don't buy salted butter, so unsalted will have to do)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
Salt and Pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

(The original recipe also called for shallots and red pepper flakes...I'm not interested in those two things, so I have omitted them from the recipe).

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat and add broccoli. Blanch until tender-crisp and bright green, about three minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and pecans, and saute until the garlic is tender, about three to four minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep stirring until the butter begins to brown, another three minutes.

Add red pepper flakes, if desired, and broccoli. Using tongs, toss the broccoli with the butter and pecans. Cook, while tossing, until the broccoli is heated through, about five to six more minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

A couple years ago, I found a recipe for a Caramel Apple Pecan pie (probably in a magazine, but I don't remember). It sounded so delicious! I decided to make it for Thanksgiving that year. When I took my first bite, I thought it was the most amazing apple pie I had ever tasted and decided to make it every Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow, after work, I'll be making this pie, but I wanted to go ahead and share the recipe with you. It's so easy to make, especially if you use store-bought pie crust. I love to bake, but I am intimidated by pie crust. And my kitchen is pretty tiny, so I don't have much room for rolling out a pie crust anyway.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

Ingredients:
2 9" pastry shells or pie crusts (don't buy Pilsbury... they have trans fat)
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced (you could use a different kind of apple, but I love Granny Smith. You kind of need that tart to balance out the sweet from the caramel. And it says to slice them, but I just chop them into bite size pieces)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (you can omit these if you don't like nuts)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 lb chopped Caramels (I use Werther's)
2 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk
Milk and sugar for the top

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, toss together apples, pecans, sugar, caramels, flour and milk.Spoon mixture into pie crust. Top with other pie crust. Pinch together edges. Cut slits into the top (our your initials to be fun). Brush top with milk and sprinkle with sugar (this just gives it a nice shimmer).

Bake until crust is golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Sound easy, huh? It definitely is! I hope you enjoy!

* This post was shared on the following Link Parties:

Six Sisters' Stuff
Young & Crafty