TWD--Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, then some Scrumptious Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Pumpkin---Get Your Pies Here! Also, Cookies, Fudge and Rice Krispy Treats!

This week for Tuesday's With Dorie, we were able to save the post until after Thanksgiving, since we were making a Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, chosen by Vibi from La casserole carree.  What a great gal, she's from France and knew this TWD would be so close to the American Thankgiving, that she chose a great pie for the occasion.  You can get the recipe for this pie on the link to her blog. 

The pie is a combination of pumpkin pie and pecan pie all in one.  I love Dorie's pie crust recipe.  It was easy and I used it for all the pies I made this Thanksgiving, veering away from my usual Never Fail Pie Crust.  I was only going to make Dorie's crust for this Twofer Pie, but liked the crust so much that I used it for all the pies I made.  Now about the pie, I wanted to love it, but for some reason, it just wouldn't bake all the way.  I baked this pie for a good 30 minutes longer than it was supposed to bake and I could tell that it was still not set in the middle.  I just couldn't keep using up oven time on it and was hoping it would set up enough while it cooled.  It looked good, even though I didn't fully read the directions and added the pecans to the pecan filling and then dumped it all on the pumpkin filling.  Maybe that's why it had a baking problem, but it does look like other's pictures I've seen.  One person we had dinner with was excited for the pie, he's the only one who ate a piece and I let it go home with him.  I tasted one pecan from it.  The middle was a little goopy and not fully set up like a true pumpkin pie.  Oh well.  I'm sure done properly, the pie is really good.  I would still rather have a small taste of a pecan pie and a little slice of pumpkin pie and call it Thanksgiving. 

The only other thing I didn't like was that Dorie had us prebake the crust, then it baked more (a lot more) after the fillings were added and I think it made the crust over done.  Next time, I would just bake the crust one time with the fillings (and yes, I covered the edges with foil when I thought they were getting too dark).  I told my friend if they never eat the pie at their house, I don't need to know, just send back my only real, nice pie plate and call it good!

I'm glad I made the pie and tried something new and I'm glad I have discovered Dorie's crust recipe, but let's move on to other Thanksgiving delights I made for the day.

Malted Milk Whopper Cookies, XXX Cranberry Crunch Cookies (really good!), and Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

I also made some super quick Cookie Dough Fudge!

Not the greatest photo, but really good fudge.  Now, I don't slave over a stove making my fudge, especially when there's too many easy recipes out there.  Those malt cookies above, they call for 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk (I always use fat free, what the heck, it tastes the same to me and might as well save a calorie or two!)

So there I was with an open can of condensed milk.  This was the quickest thing to do with it. 

Quick, Easy, Yummy Fudge

12 oz. milk chocolate chips

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (basically, you can use any combo of 3 cups of any chips you want!)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (this one was minus 2 tablespoons, but I don't think it made a difference)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate and milk in a saucepan over medium low heat.  Stirring almost constantly.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Stir together well.  This is where you can add nuts or whatever, try marshmallow and peanuts and make a quick Rocky Road Fudge.  This starts setting up fast, so have an 8x8 inch pan foil lined and lightly sprayed with cooking spray and ready to add the mixture to and spread it out evenly. 

With this cookie dough fudge, I just happened to have some edible cookie dough (no eggs) in the fridge, because I recently made these, Cookie Dough Truffles, that I found at Priscilla's blog, A Peek in Priscilla's Kitchen.  Cute, YUMMY blog by a teenage girl who bakes tons of goodies for her family.  Check it out!  Anyway, I made a bunch of these truffles.

Speaking of yummy--these sure are.  And the recipe makes A LOT!  So, I had cookie dough and decided to put a layer of it in the fudge.  Just as yummy as the truffles!

I also made the traditional Libby's pumpkin pie for Kevin.  It's just not Thanksgiving for him without pumpkin pie.  I whipped out Dorie's pie crust recipe that you can get on Vibi's link above, or better yet, buy Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours.  It's a keeper!  I made the double crust recipe because I was also making more pie. 

The pie on the left, that's none other than THE Pioneer Woman's Scrumptious Apple Pie.  Do you love PW?  I do!  If we could wish for certain friends in life, I would wish for her to be my friend.  Her blog is amazing, her food and recipes and photography are amazing and she is hilarious.  When I need a daily laugh, I read her blog.  And when I saw this pie, I knew I had to make it.  Apple Pie is Thanksgiving to me.  So here's the pie.  Nope, my picture is nothing compared to PW's.  Go look at hers (when you're done reading my blog!).  I'm bummed because you're supposed to drizzle (or slather or drown, whatever you want) this pie with caramel ice cream topping and I forgot it.  I let another friend take this pie home, because I just can't eat all that pie, okay, let me rephrase that, I CAN eat that much, I just shouldn't! 

Never fear, there was enough crust dough, apples and crumble topping left over when I made the pie to make a quick galette.  I tasted it today with the caramel and ooh, it is GOOD!  The picture doesn't do it justice. 

So you'd probably think that's a lot of pie, good for Katrina.  But nope, I made even more.  You see, in my family there was always a cherry pie, so Dad, this is for you.  Well, okay, sorry, it all got eaten, but I made it with you in mind.  I set out to make this cherry pie, even had the crust all ready, when I couldn't for the life of me find the second can of cherry pie filling (Yep, that the stuff we use, Wilderness brand is a good one and I even bought the LITE version.  I can't tell the difference.)  But the pie should have TWO cans of filling in it, so I improvised and made these little guys.

Used a muffin tin and whipped out 12 of these.  I did one with the lattice topping, one with whole topping and 10 with a streusel topping.  ALL GOOD!  Perfect size and so cute!

How cute are these little pies!?

I thought this was a fun way to make these and everyone liked them.  I might keep doing it this way, especially when I discover I only have one can of cherry pie filling!  I made a cute plate full (forgot to take a picture of it) with these mini cherry pies and I also made about 10 little mini pumpkin pies (there's always too much pumpkin filling, too!).

OH!  I didn't even photograph the rolls I made, but they are sure good.  I made about 60 rolls.  I've been using this recipe off and on for years and it is so simple and good AND bad for you, hence, the rolls are delicious!  You make up the dough, no need to knead (ha), let it sit overnight, then roll it out and shape these in to crescents, like rugelach.  Here's a link to the recipe from Allrecipes.

Blue Ribbon Overnight Rolls

And that, my friends, concludes this Thanksgiving baking extravaganza!  Cheers!  We had a great time with great friends and lots of food.