Playing With Food This Holiday Season
Some cooking and baking ideas from the archives
As we head into the holiday season, I have been going through my favorite festive recipes — which I’m sharing here to inspire your own baking/cooking plans.
I’m also about to launch a ‘holiday baking hotline’ chat for paid subscribers. Please do send any Thanksgiving baking/cooking/planning questions and ideas there, and hopefully everyone can chime in!
I’ll also be sharing everything I re-cook/bake from the list below over on notes if you want to follow my journey and connect with me over there!
I still have not decided what to make for Thanksgiving… All that I know for certain is I will not be roasting a turkey. I am toying around with two ideas: pie-ifying every item on the table or making no pies at all and taking it easy (since I have already made so many this year).
If I don’t make pies, this Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake will undoubtedly be my pumpkin dessert of choice. Not only is it fun to make and serve (while being very low effort aesthetically), but it is so delicious. The way the squishy, tender, spiced pumpkin cake melds with the gooey, sticky, brown butter bourbon toffee sauce, crunchy, toasted pecans, fluffy whipped cream, and dense and savory squash is so lovely, my eye is twitching just thinking about it.
Pecan and Pumpkin Double-Crusted Pie
Gooey, sticky, pecan-toffee filling, and creamy pumpkin (spiced) custard sandwiched between two crumbly sablé-ish crusts. It’s like two delicious – and classic – pies in one.
Apple pie is very close to my heart. I would make one every Thanksgiving with my grandmother, which really was my introduction to baking and how I fell in love with it. My recipe strays from hers (I use butter instead of oil for the crust, and I like to cook my apples first), but it still feels like an homage, a way to honor her memory.
This is the first recipe I posted on Substack a little over two years ago, and I was working on it for years before then. I love it so much, but I haven’t made it since she passed, so this will definitely be my pick if I decide to go down the pie route.
If you’re looking for something apple-pie-like and like arts and crafts (but don’t love making pie doughs), this is the recipe for you. My Apple-Strudel-Pie is super fun to make, cutting out circles of phyllo, painting circles with butter, and sprinkling on chopped toasted walnuts.
It’s super delicious too: crispy-flaky, buttery phyllo, warm, lightly spiced and sweetened brown butter-tinged apples, armagnac-soaked raisins (or cherries), and cool vanilla-y crème anglaise.
Sound on!
If you want to get creative this Thanksgiving, and show off your own flair and flavor style, I suggest making a Pudding Pie Your Way. With four pudding flavors (+ customizations), eight crumb crusts, and 14 fruits and/or five nut fillings to choose from, the possibilities of what you can create are seemingly endless.
Pear (or Apple) Spiced Almond Tartlets With Vanilla Crème Anglaise
These are–admittedly–not a pie, but they really do look like mini ones, with super fall flavors and a double-crust. This recipe has all of my favorite things: apples/pears, spiced frangipane, lots of crust, anglaise, and mile-high pie aesthetics.
This recipe came from the pot pies I served at my wedding. I loved what I landed on so much that I had to share it. It features a sturdy free-form crust (meaning no need for a pie pan), smoked chicken or turkey (for additional depth), and loads of cider for a very fall flavor.
This is also a great recipe for your Thanksgiving leftovers, especially if you end up with a whole bunch of turkey or chicken.
Speaking of what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers… Risotto!
A Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich makes great use of leftover meat, gravy, and cranberry sauce, but it doesn’t incorporate the vegetables. Risotto is a delicious way to use up all of that tasty, but too often forgotten, veg. Just last week, I made an amazing risotto by blending up some roasted leftovers: delicata squash slices, half of a butternut squash, and some garlic. I stirred it into a parm-broth-laden risotto, complemented it with cabbage cooked down in guanciale fat (bacon and brussels sprouts would also be great), and topped it all with some crispy guanciale bits. This is a really fun way to get creative with using up leftovers, and a delicious way to limit Thanksgiving waste!
This recipe is a big favorite of yours! It’s super creamy, gooey, and cheesy, and has buttery Ritz Cracker crumbs on top. Must I say anything else?
Chocolate Chip Cookies + Hazelnut-ty Chocolate Chip Cookies
My second most popular recipe, Chocolate Chip Cookies, would make a great long weekend baking project to cozy up with. They’re soft, chewy, and caramely, with a crisp, buttery outside and layers of chocolate. Plus, the hazelnut version feels extra special for the holidays!
I’ll be coming out with a new holiday cookie recipe soon, but I just re-made these, and I must say they are still beautiful and now even more delicious with a slightly updated meringue recipe. It produces a crunchier and lighter cookie and includes one less step.
Potato Brioche-ish Cinnamon Rolls
If you’re looking for more of a baking project, I would recommend making these cinnamon rolls. I remake this dough every few months for all of my sandwich and toast needs. It is delicious, pillowy, and dare I say pretty perfect. When you roll this pretty-perfect dough up with cinnamon sugar and top it with cream cheese frosting (the recipe is very light on the cheese flavor, fyi) it is truly heavenly.
These are such a treat on Christmas morning, just be sure to start in time! This is a 2-3 day affair.
Lastly, if you’re looking for a lower-lift yeasted/sourdough breakfast option, that’s what my giant pancake recipe (or the Big-Pan Pancake x Donut recipe) is for.
I made your apple pie recipe and it was lovely - can’t wait to try more of these out!!
does anyone have a good source for smoked chicken in NYC? I want to make the chicken pot pie recipe hehe 🐔🥧