Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian readers! Even though I am now living in the States, it is still fun to celebrate and frankly, Aric loves the thought of now having two Thanksgivings a year! We happen to know or be related to quite a few Canucks here in Ohio so we all gathered together this past weekend to celebrate. It was a potluck affair, which is a pretty incredible event to look forward to, given that we are surrounded by great cooks who happen to be great friends to boot! I was put on “alternative dessert” duty, supplying desserts to partner up with another couple’s delicious pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies.

Before I jump into the food though, I will preemptively answer a few questions that seem to crop up about Canadian Thanksgiving: (1) Why do we celebrate in October and (2) Do we celebrate the same way? To be honest, I didn’t know the answer to the first question and neither did any of my fellow Canadians at our get together. Thank goodness for Google! It informed me that we celebrate to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. So now I can stick that in my back pocket for next year, in case anyone asks. As for the celebration itself, it pretty much follows the same agenda as American Thanksgiving: a food coma from turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie, and all the other goodies that go along with the all-day feast; family get togethers; football.

So with that said, let’s delve into the desserts I made!

I thought it would be fun to have a theme to these desserts and decided to do something to represent both the Canadian and Ohioan heritage coming together. And then I got carried away and decided to add another dessert!

First, for the Canadians, I thought I would make something that tasted of “home” and that wasn’t easy to find here in Ohio. Nanaimo bars were the first thing that came to mind (top tier in photo above). Layers of chocolate and coconut, with vanilla custard icing and melted chocolate - how can you go wrong? I just didn’t realize how Canadian they were until the party when every American in the room asked me what they were! Coming from Vancouver, which is a ferry ride away from Nanaimo, BC and, obviously, the origin of these no bake treats, these are an obvious staple in any local BC bakery. But after making multiple descriptions of these treats to the other guests, they dove and gave them a try. Whether you have never heard of them before or grew up eating these for dessert, they are a relatively easy goodie to make and are great for parties as they can be made ahead of time. I had never actually made them before myself but owe all the recipe credit to the Closet Cooking Blog. They tasted just as I remembered them!


NANAIMO BARS

Ingredients:

Base
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)

Filling
1/3 cup butter (room temperature)
3 tablespoon custard powder (or vanilla pudding powder)
1/4 cup milk
3 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Topping
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Base
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. Stir in the sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
3. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract and remove from heat.
4. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and walnuts.
5. Press into a greased 8 inch square pan and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Filling
1. Cream the butter.
2. Beat in the custard powder and milk.
3. Beat in the sugar slowly.
4. Spread over the the base layer and chill in the fridge until it sets.

Topping
1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan and stir until smooth.
2. Spread over the filling layer and chill in a fridge until the chocolate begins to harden.
3. Score the chocolate where you will cut it into bars and chill in the fridge.
4. Before the chocolate hardens, cut into bars. (Use an hot knife and wipe clean after each cut.)

Next up: Buckeyes. These peanut butter and chocolate bombs literally melt in your mouth! The name comes from their resemblance to the nut of Ohio’s state tree, the Buckeye, but all that really matters is that they are delicious. I had made these earlier this year, right after I saw the recipe in Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented (See all Dessert Baking Books), a sinfully wonderful dessert cookbook. Again, not overly difficult to make and can be made ahead of time. The only tip I have is for the dipping: I have used a fondue fork to dip the peanut butter ball in the chocolate, which work really well and I highly recommend. And don’t fret about the hole it makes in the ball – if you dip it so that the hole is in the center of the exposed part, once the buckeye is dipped and back on the cookie sheet, it is pliable enough that you can just push the peanut butter together and voila! No hole.


BUCKEYES

Ingredients:

¼ cup cream cheese, softened
1½ cups peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 9 full graham crackers)
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
10 tbsp. (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped


In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat on medium speed for 10 seconds. Add the confectioners’ sugar and butter. Beat at low speed for 20 seconds to prevent the sugar from spilling over, then gradually increase the speed until the mixture is completely combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again. The mixture will feel slightly dry. Set the peanut butter filling aside while you melt the chocolate.

In the top of a double boiler set over hot water, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently until it is completely smooth. Pour the chocolate into a small, deep bowl. Let cool to tepid (about 100ºF, body temperature) while you shape the peanut butter centers.

Assemble the Buckeyes
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out slightly more than 1 tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared sheet pan and repeat the process until all the filling has been shaped. The balls can sit fairly close to each other, just make sure they are not touching.

One by one, using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate. Roll the ball around from side to side to cover almost the entire peanut butter center, leaving a small amount uncovered. Manipulate the buckeye so that the dripping chocolate covers the holes made by the fork. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and return each chocolate-covered buckeye to the pan. Refrigerate the entire sheet pan for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate before serving.

(Buckeyes will keep for up to 3 days, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.)

Finally, in my endless quests to make desserts for my vegan friends, I decided to kill two birds with one stone on the next recipe. I had previously mentioned that I was eager make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough truffles found on the Love and Olive Oil Blog. Well, Aric’s mom actually beat me to it and tested them out first! And it was a unanimous approval from her and Aric’s dad, as well as all of her baking friends. I should note that Aric’s mom and I have been swapping recipes by email right from the get go, even before we had met in person. It is fun that we have something we can share together, even though we are about 2500 miles apart.

Well, after such glowing reports and a quick scan of the recipe again, I decided I could make these vegan by sticking to margarine, soy milk, and using Trader Joe’s vegan chocolate chips for both the dough and the chocolate coating (Bless you Trader Joe’s – your chips have solved most of my vegan chocolate issues!). And I just have say, these are amazing! Make sure to keep them frozen before eating – it doesn’t actually freeze the dough but keeps it firm enough to hold its shape. And to answer the question about keeping fingerprints off of the chocolate coating, I have found that dipping the dough into the chocolate with a spoon and then rolling it onto the baking sheet solves that problem. Just tap off the excess chocolate from the spoon before you roll it off and you should be fine.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

14 oz dark chocolate candy coating or melted chocolate


Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add soymilk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

When dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form dough into 1" balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks or a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week.


It was a fun filled weekend and I am going to have to amp up the yoga workouts this week to make up for all this food but isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about, no matter what country you are from?