Even after stuffing yourself with turkey and all the glorious sides, there’s always room for Thanksgiving pie. This year, rather than making several pies, choose one: pumpkin or pecan. Then dress it up a bit.
If you’re going for the pumpkin pie, add a caramel pecan sauce – it’s the better of the two pie flavor profiles, but you’ll only need to roll out one crust.
Alternatively, skip the pie altogether and make pumpkin mousse and pecan butterscotch for an easier, perfect take on classic Thanksgiving dessert flavors.
Resulting in more of a pastry cream than traditional pumpkin pie, this recipe calls for cooking the canned pumpkin to concentrate its flavor. This dark orange puree is then tossed with heavy cream, eggs, lots of spices, and the minimum amount of sugar for a not-too-sweet take on the standard Thanksgiving dessert. Serve it on its own, with a dollop of whipped cream, or under a generous layer of caramel pecan sauce.
Ultra nutty, with a thin layer of sweet syrup on the bottom, this pecan pie gets an extra dose of flavor from the browned butter. It’s sweet, but not cloying, making it a nice finish to a Thanksgiving meal — with or without a dollop of pumpkin mousse on top.
This mousse is extra pumpkin but not too sweet. Cooking canned pumpkin puree removes excess moisture. It then blends very easily with cream cheese, which gives this mousse a deliciously tangy flavor.
This one-pot sauce starts with browned butter and toasted walnuts, which turn crispy in caramelized brown sugar. It’s optional, but a final touch of Scotch whiskey adds another dimension and balances the sweet-salty flavor of the sauce.
