The Dessert Blog

It is hard to imagine Thanksgiving dessert recipes without pumpkin and sweet potatoes. You’ll find a double dose of delicious with the two dessert recipes below.

Can’t decide which dessert to make for Thanksgiving? Or perhaps you’ll be too busy with the turkey and making a dessert would require four extra hands?

Well, relax, because our chef Sophia has several great Thanksgiving recipes that your children can whip up in no time! That’s right! This year, hand the mixing bowls and spoons to the kids, sit back, and enjoy! In this article, she agreed to share two: no bake express pumpkin pie and sweet potato muffins.

NO BAKE EXPRESS PUMPKIN PIE

Can’t find the time to make pumpkin pie from scratch? With this recipe, you just whip and serve!

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup milk
2 small Cook & Serve vanilla pudding packets
1 cup unsweetened pumpkin filling
1 cup Cool Whip
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 ready-made Graham cracker pie crust

DIRECTIONS

1) In a small pot, mix together only 1 cup of the milk, pumpkin filling, and Cool Whip. Let it simmer over medium low heat.
2) In a small mixing bowl, mix together remaining ¼ cup of milk, along with the pudding packets. Add to the simmering mixture. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
3) Pour thickened pumpkin filling into the prepared crust. Let cool to set. Serve with a dollop of Whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

SWEET POTATO MUFFINS

These sweet treats are packed full of vitamins and fiber!

INGREDIENTS

3 medium sweet potatoes
3/4 stick unsalted margarine, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a small muffin tin.
2) Puncture a few holes into the sweet potatoes and microwave until tender, about 10 minutes. With care, scoop cooked potato out of the skin, and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add margarine and mix with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat in sugar and spices, and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
3) Mix flour and baking powder together in a small bowl. Add to the potato mixture and mix well with a fork. Near the end, you may need to knead the batter by hand.
4) Fill each muffin tin cup with the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

For more kid-friendly Thanksgiving dessert recipes, visit http://www.pluggedinparents.com

Want an idea for a fun activity to experience with your kids? How about an idea that will allow them to use their creativity and that makes them feel like an adult for a brief moment? Baking is that perfect activity. It gives kids practice to improve their invaluable skills in the kitchen, which they’ll need later in life. The best choices for recipes should be easy to make and allow for some creativity such as shapes, colors or toppings, and of course, the most important “ingredient”, they should taste great!

So what’s something that your kids will love to make and eat?

You got it- rice crispy treats. We will look at three different approaches in this article and add some twists along the way. We will make normal rice crispy treats, mixed ones and chocolate covered. You’ve all made rice crispy treats before so to have some fun with the normal kind let’s discuss shapes. You can make the traditional square-shaped treats with a square cake or brownie pan, but you could have even more fun than that. Find some cake pans with a whole variety of different shapes. You can find a variety of many different shapes, anything from their favorite characters, seasonal shapes like Halloween or Christmas, as well as various small normal shapes like stars or mini bundt cakes. The cake pans come big or small and can be found at any store that sells baking supplies or online.

Before you finish up all the mix, take half of it and blend in your favorite hard candies to add flavor and a contrast of texture, whether they’re M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces or cinnamon candies. Have some more fun, why not try soft candies too? Try some multi-colored chocolate chips or your favorite gummy candies, maybe Sour Patch Kids.

Want some more unique ideas? Mix in chocolate flavored rice crisped cereal with the mix to create multi-flavored treats. Just have the kids help with stirring the mix after it’s removed from the heat (microwave or stove top), mixing in the candies and pressing the mix into your choice of pan.

Your kids will love to chomp down on these tasty rice crispy creations. Then they can take some to school to share with their friends and they make great teacher gifts too. But the fun is just beginning. You could combine all these different ideas for the “ultimate step”.

Now we are going to create chocolate covered rice crispy treats!

I prefer to use a double boiler to melt chocolate, which you can find in many stores. It’s basically one saucepan sitting inside a bigger pan. You heat up the water on medium heat in the bottom pan and place grated milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips in the top one. You can also melt chips in the microwave using a small microwavable bowl. First, heat up the chips for one minute and 10 seconds stir and then again in 10-second intervals. The chips will not melt down to liquid on their own. You must stir them using a metal spoon. Wait until the chips show the beginning signs of melting. No matter the shape of treat, dip it into the chocolate at least half way over the treat and place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Toss on some sprinkles or red, green or blue colored sugar or dip the treats in white chocolate. Why not!

Your kids will enjoy the big variety. Let their creative juices flow. And don’t eat them all! Don’t forget to take some to the people that matter most. These delicious goodies make ideal teacher gifts, friend gifts, grandparents gifts or for relatives.

Let your “little chefs” boast how good their treats look and taste!

If you like chocolate, pecans and caramel then you will definitely love a turtle cheesecake. This is a great type of cheesecake that is very scrumptious and sweet. In fact you can even make one of these delicious cheesecakes yourself. Here is a process you can use to make your very own turtle cheesecake.

The first thing that you will need to do is to chop up some pecans. In order to get a proper turtle cheesecake ready you will need to get a cup of chopped pecans ready. Once you get them chopped up you can cook them in an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You should cook them for six minutes. Afterwards you’ll need to melt some unsalted butter into a small bowl. You will need six tablespoons worth of butter for the recipe.

Next you will need two cups of crushed vanilla wafers. These wafers should then be mixed in with your melted butter and placed into a nine inch round springform pan. Be sure to put the pan on top of a cookie sheet. Next you can heat the mixture for ten minutes at 350 degrees. It will need to cool off after the ten minutes are over.

For the caramel flavor you will need to gather fourteen ounces of caramel candies and melt them. You will need to melt the caramel candies in five ounces of evaporated milk. After you get this melted you will need to get the combination stirred and poured over the crust that you have just formed. When this is done you will need to sprinkle the pecans you toasted earlier on top of the cheesecake.

The next parts of preparation involve getting cream cheese and chocolate chips prepared. Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese should be added to the recipe. After this you will need to use a half cup of white sugar along with three half teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Two eggs should then be added. The entire mixture should be mixed up to where it is smooth. You will need to melt some chocolate chips next. Be sure to gather enough for half a cup to mix into your recipe.

The entire mixture will need to be poured into the pan and baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for forty minutes. Be sure to put the turtle cheesecake in a refrigerator and let it sit overnight. When you are finished you will be able to enjoy a great dessert and serve it to your friends.