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Metropolitan Bakery’s Pumpkin-Walnut Muffins
Have Thanksgiving guests staying overnight? These muffins, which will appear intermittently at Metropolitan Bakery’s Reading Terminal Stand through the end of November (sometimes in a Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip variation) and which are featured in the bakery’s 2003 cookbook, could be the delicious centerpiece of your Black Friday continental breakfast.
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
2 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
6 large eggs
2 ¼ cups pumpkin puree, fresh or canned
¾ cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups chopped walnuts, toasted
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter twenty-four 2 ½ half-cup muffin-pan cups.
In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Stir in the granulated and brown sugars. Add the butter with the flour mixture and toss. With a paddle attachment at low speed, mix the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs; stir into the flour mixture. Stir in the pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla, just until blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in the walnuts.
Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin-pan cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, rotating the muffin pans between the upper and lower oven racks halfway through baking, until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins in the pans for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pans and cool completely on wire racks. Yields 2 dozen muffins.
Nanny’s Roasted Potato Balls
Many shoppers might assume Contessa’s French Linen owner Laura DiFrancesco would have some French DNA. She’s actually half Italian and half Penn Dutch and she grew up helping her “Nanny,” her late maternal grandmother Elizabeth Imber of Lebanon, prepare this traditional bread stuffing-potato hybrid every holiday. Besides being delicious, it reheats well (make it the night before and then refrigerate), a big plus for the quintathalon of cooking tasks that is Thanksgiving.
2 1/2 cups plain mashed potatoes
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick plus 4 tablespoons butter, melted (4 tablespoons reserved)
1/2 to 1 cup milk (enough to moisten)
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter an 8 by 8 or 9 by 9-inch casserole dish. Make the mashed potatoes from about 1 1/4 pounds fresh potatoes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. Use a blender or food processor to turn slices of soft, fresh bread into the breadcrumbs. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl except 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. Use an ice cream scoop to form mixture into 1.5- to 2-inch balls. Place balls side-by-side in the casserole dish. Drizzle the reserved melted butter over formed balls. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Finish by placing the dish under the broiler for two to three minutes. Serves 4 to 6.
Tootsie’s Sweet Potato Casserole
This is one of the most popular dishes on Tootsie Salad Express’ hot bar. It appears there four to five times a week year-round (even in July!)
6 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes.
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons cinnamon, (or more, to taste)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare the sweet potatoes. Grease a 9- by 13-inch pan and fill evenly with the potatoes. Pour sugar over the potato pieces and toss. Drizzle vanilla over all. Place the squares of butter evenly over the potatoes. Sprinkle cinnamon over it all. Bake uncovered for 1 hour or until the potatoes are fork-tender. Serves 10 to 15.
Beck’s Bread Pudding
Pumpkin or apple pie might be the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert on East Coast Thanksgiving tables but in Beck’s Cajun Café’s food hub of New Orleans, you’d just as likely see bread pudding. Beck’s owner Bill Beck does not dare to show up at his wife’s family’s Thanksgiving gathering without several trays of this pudding, which features the fall-favorite apple-caramel flavors. It also is a best-seller at his Reading Terminal stand.
10 eggs
3 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 quarts heavy cream
1 pint whole milk
2 tablespoons water
1 large skin-on apple, cut into 1/8-inch slices
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup raisins
8 cups, day-old or stale bread cubes (3/4-inch by 3/4-inch), crusts removed
Butter a 9 by 12 baking dish. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Add eggs to a mixing bowl and mix to combine yolks and whites. Add 2 3/4 cups of the light brown sugar and the rest of ingredients down through the whole milk and mix well. Taste the custard to see if you like the way it tastes (If not, add more cinnamon and/or nutmeg).
Place a one-quart saucepot on the stove with the water and the reserved 1/2 cup of light brown sugar on a medium flame and stir. When the mixture starts to simmer, stir continuously for one minute to reduce and marry the sugar and water fully. Turn off the heat, remove from the stove and gently stir in the butter. Set aside.
Pour all the warm faux caramel sauce evenly over all the apple slices (reheat it if it’s not hot enough to pour easily or if too much is stuck to the bottom of the pot). Scatter the bread cubes evenly over the sauce; then do the same with the custard and the raisins. Push the cubed bread into the custard mix; do this two more times over the next 20 minutes so the bread has evenly absorbed the custard.
Place on center rack of the oven for two hours or until the inside is moist but the top is light brown and crispy. Serve warm with ice cream, macerated fruit or whiskey sauce (as is the custom at Beck’s). Serves 8 to 10.
12th Street Cantina’s Turkey Mole
You can only eat so many turkey sandwiches. Twelth Street Cantina to the rescue with this deliciously different way to use up leftover dark turkey meat, a simplified version of a turkey mole dish sometimes featured in the Cantina’s deli case.
2 ½ pounds boneless and skinless cooked dark turkey meat, (or white meat if you prefer), cut into large chunks
2 tablespoons lard or vegetable or olive oil
1 small onion, diced small
¼ cup chili powder
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon anise or fennel seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large ripe tomato, diced small
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 large ripe banana, cut into medium pieces
One 6-inch corn tortilla, cut into pieces
2 cups turkey stock (or chicken if turkey is not available)
1 ounce semisweet chocolate
Heat lard or oil in large nonstick sauté pan. Add onion and cook until tender.
and all the spices through and including the cumin in the pan, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is dry and spices become darker. Add tomatoes and raisins and cook a few minutes until tomato is tender.
Remove from heat. Set aside 2 teaspoons of the toasted sesame seeds and put the rest of the sesame seeds, all the almonds and everything in the sauté pan into a food processor.
Add banana, tortilla and half a cup of the turkey broth. Puree. Return mixture to sauté pan and bring to simmer.
Add chocolate and stir until melted. Add remaining 1 ½ cups turkey stock and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add turkey meat. Simmer approx. 10 minutes longer. Add a little water if sauce seems too thick; simmer uncovered if it seems too thin.
Serve over rice, garnished with the reserved toasted sesame seeds and, if you wish, chopped cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds. Serves 6 to 8.
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