I've been in charge of Thanksgiving breakfast since I've been married. It is one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving other than the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the after dinner dessert, the family time...okay, let me rephrase, it's my favorite part of Thanksgiving morning.
Other than the parade.
Usually I send out a family email blast to let everyone know breakfast is still on and that they don't need to bring anything because I'm crazy enough to attempt to make 12 completely different desserts within the two days before Thanksgiving.
In case you're wondering about the dessert part, this post should explain everything: Thanksgiving breakfast
This year I found inspiration in summer party invitations I saw on clearance at Target. The invitation was a two-tone ice pop (with stick and all) and on the back was where the details of the party were to be written. I loved this, but couldn't see using ice pops for a Thanksgiving dessert breakfast.
After a little thought, the pumpkin pie invitation was born:
I always try to switch up the menu a little bit. Last year was the year of the mini desserts. Mini desserts are great because guests are always afraid to be the person who takes the first slice of pie or cake.
The tough item to make mini was pumpkin pies. Pumpkin pie should take only about 30 minutes (at most) of prep time. Shorter even if you are using canned pumpkin and a pre-made crust. But me, I'm married to my better than pumpkin pie recipe which uses fresh butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin. Making this into mini pumpkin pies took collectively about 3 hours of my time.
It was so worth it.
What helped the process move along smoothly was this pancake pen I bought ahead of time:
Boy am I happy when I'm right.
Some of the other items on my menu were:
Just like, in fact better than, Starbucks petite vanilla bean scones. While scones are typically a little more on the dry side, the icing on these trap the moisture in and each bite is moist with vanilla bean deliciousness.
My sister-in-law, Kristina, helped me pick this one out:
Baked French Toast. Oh-my-goodness. While I know this isn't really a dessert, I wanted to have a somewhat breakfast item to offer.
That's what I said to my sister-in-law as we discussed and decided on Baked French Toast to fulfill that desire of mine. The truth was I wanted to make cranberry butter, and I figured this would be the perfect thing to put it on.
It was. It most certainly was.
Look for the recipe for cranberry butter in one of the upcoming posts.
I love cheesecake brownies, it is my go to treat at Starbucks these days. I thought I would concoct my own cheesecake pumpkin bar. As Thanksgiving day got closer, and my body got run down with an unwelcome seasonal cold, I hadn't yet settled on what I would be doing to make my cheesecake pumpkin bar come to life. That's when a coworker told me about these:
Please don't judge me when I say this, Paula Deen should be sainted.
There. I said it, and I meant it.
I love her almost as much as I love the butter she uses in all of her recipes.
These Pumpkin Gooey Bars were just as good as the pumpkin cheesecake bars I was dreaming up. The cake crust on the bottom gave a great balance to the sweet creamy pumpkin mixture on top. They were yummy cold or even warmed up for about 15 seconds in the microwave. Either way, top it with a little cool whip and you've got pumpkin heaven in bar form.
About a week before Thanksgiving, I realized I had no chocolate on my breakfast menu.
No chocolate. No a lick, drib drab, ounce, drip drop, or even an iota of chocolate on the menu.
For shame, I know.
I looked through my clipped recipes that I have yet to make and found these glorious masterpieces:
Smores brownies. Oh yes.
I've made another version of smores brownies before and was highly disappointed. While they were decent brownies, they were hardly worthy of being considered smores brownies.
These most certainly were. They were the one item on my breakfast table that I didn't have any left overs of. Now that has to say something about them!
Go here for the recipe: Inside Out Smores Brownies
It seems this was the year of last minute additions. I am typically not into fruit desserts. Cherries, however, I have a soft spot for. When I saw these mini cherry pecan pies in an ad for Lucky Leaf Cherry Pie Filling, I knew I had to make them....if I could find the time.
They were mini, which made them even more necessary to add to my breakfast table. They took a little longer to bake than the recipe said, otherwise they were perfect.
For the recipe go here: Cherry Pecan Pies
I've saved three recipes to give you a blow by blow, step by step, look at. Up first will be Cranberry Butter.
You won't want to miss it.
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