so many things to be thankful for! every year, God utterly humbles me as He surpasses what i might imagine as the greatest amount of blessings one could possibly receive in a year. somehow, He always seems to out-do Himself. this year i am especially thankful for my sweet hubby (of course!), but i’m also thankful for his family (both immediate and extended), which is now also my family. i have been so incredibly blessed by their Christ-like love, acceptance, generosity, and grace towards me. i could not have asked for more wonderful in-laws and cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents-in-laws.
anywho, soo since we spent time kevin’s folks last weekend, we were able to spend Thanksgiving with the Kong side of the family. i was pleasantly surprised when i heard from my mom last week, that some of our extended family who usually aren’t able to make it to Thanksgiving, as well as a lot of my cousins’ significant others, would be in attendance, making the final count somewhere around 30! my aunt (the host this year) asked me to bring a dessert. given the large guest count, i decided to make 2! i wanted to try some healthier versions of traditional thanksgiving desserts, AND with a little twist. the result? apple pie pull apart bread and pear cranberry and gingerbread crumble.
1) apple pie pull apart bread
recipe and photo courtesy of Heather’s French Press
a few notes:
- this recipe is AWESOME! it is sooooooo easy and suuuper delicious! everyone loved it because it wasn’t too sweet!
- the only thing i did a little different from the recipe listed above was to make some frosting, as per recommendation of this other site/blog. kevin and i didn’t have any milk in the fridge so we used our caramel macchiato coffee creamer instead and didn’t add vanilla extract. delish!
- i noticed that because the biscuits are stacked so close together plus the added juice from the slices of apple, the biscuits take quite a while to bake. i made this again on friday for my parents and discovered that a good way to prevent the top of the biscuits from burning is to cover it with a tent of foil for 20 minutes and then to remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes. so 45 minutes total and it’ll be perfect!
2) pear cranberry and gingersnap crumble
recipe and photo courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
a few notes:
- to be honest, i wasn’t crazy about this recipe. the gingersnap crumble on top was delicious, but the fruit underneath wasn’t great…it was so liquidy and the texture of the thick juice was a little grainy…perhaps because of the pears? or the cornstarch? i’m not sure…my aunt suggested that i try apples next time. some other people still liked it, though, and gladly packed what was leftover.
- for the crumble, i used Trader Joe’s triple ginger snaps and i also added some old fashioned rolled oats (because what crumble/crisp doesn’t have oats?)
alice in cook-ING land 