Turkey Day Treats

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A long time ago I heard someone say that “desserts” is “stressed” spelled backwards. I think they were referring to the feeling you have after over indulging in sweets. With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, many of you are probably thinking it refers to preparing them for your family. Maybe you waited until the last minute, or aunt Sally forgot to bring a dessert; what are you to do? Family will be there soon and there are no desserts. Have no fear! I will be sharing some quick dessert ideas that you can do that will be ready by the time everyone gets to dessert!

I don’t really follow recipes very often, and I am not crazy about sharing my recipes. I will share with you some of mine, but you may notice a few times mine looks slightly different than yours. Don’t worry, you are probably doing everything right, but I have added my own special ingredients. Yours will still be delicious though I promise! I will post pictures with step by step instructions for you to follow along with, or you can go to the bottom of each page for the ingredients and directions all together.

Before we dive into the recipes, I have a few tips to help you along the way.
1. Are these eggs fresh?
If you don’t use eggs very often, you probably have some in your refrigerator that are a little questionable. An easy way to tell if the eggs are good is to drop them- one at a time- into a large glass of cold water. The water needs to be very cold. Add a few ice cubes if you aren’t sure if it is cold enough. Drop an egg in the water. Don’t be afraid to just let it go; it won’t crack. Your egg will do one of 3 things. It will sink to the bottom and maybe bounce a little. It will sink to the bottom and float about midway up. Or it will sink and the float all the way to the top. If your egg sinks and stays at the bottom, it is a good, fresh egg. If it floats about midway, it is okay, but not very fresh. If it floats to the top, it is rotten; Throw it out! I only use the ones that sink and stay at the bottom for baking and cooking, but the ones that stay in the middle are safe to use, as well.
2. Why is my cake still sticking?
If you used a cooking spray and your cake still stuck, your problem is that you used cooking spray. When baking cakes NEVER use PAM. I don’t use it for multiple reasons. Mainly, cake from scratch seem to stick more than box cakes, so they need a little more grease. Also, PAM tends to leave a gunky mess on my pans that drives me crazy; it will not come off either! I use Wilton “easy off.” It is a spray, like PAM, but I have never had a cake stick with it, and it doesn’t leave any kind of residue on my pans.
3. Room temperature
Everything mixes easier when at room temperature. Leave your ingredients sitting out well in advance. I like to leave my butter siting out over night. Other ingredients like cream cheese, eggs, flour and sugar (if you refrigerate them, and any other cold ingredients should be left out just long enough to reach room temperature. Do not leave whole milk or heavy cream sitting out. These tend to go bad very quickly, so to be on the safe side, leave them in the refrigerator until ready to use.
4. I can’t believe it’s not butter!
I cannot stress the importance of butter. Please don’t use margarine. The end result will not be good. As bad as butter is for you, margarine is worse. Butter is a bit more expensive, but it is worth the price. When baking, always use unsalted. If you can’t find real butter, you can make your own using heavy cream and a mason jar. You can find detailed instructions click here. Just leave out the salt.

Whenever you are ready to get started on your yummy desserts click the next button. First up, chocolate pound cake.