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How has Thanksgiving come up so quickly? If you're in need of some make-ahead recipe inspo, from pumpkin pie to fool-proof cornbread stuffing and even a non-traditional cookie you can bring as a gift....we've got you covered!
Verónica Garrido Martínez, Head Pastry Chef, Great Scotland Yard Hotel, bakes up some criminally delicious pastries! She is currently responsible for all the baked goods in the 152-room luxury hotel, part of the Hyatt Unbound Collection, a conversion of the historic former home of the Metropolitan Police. Prior, Chef Veronica has worked in Michelin star restaurants in her native Spain and London, read more about her fascinating career. For Thanksgiving, she shares her seasonal Pumpkin & Pecan Snickerdoodle cookies, a great option if you can't be bothered to make a pie, and checks off two essential ingredients.
Pumpkin & Pecans Snickerdoodles
45 grams soft butter
40 grams caster sugar
44 grams light brown sugar
1 Egg
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
75 grams strong bread flour (can sub all-purpose flour but bread is preferred)
2 grams kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
90 grams coarse chopped roasted pecans
Cinnamon sugar( 20 grams cinnamon powder + 200 grams caster sugar)
Steps:
Cream the butter and both sugars until fluffy.
Add whole egg and the pumpkin puree and beat the mix until well combined.
Add then the dey ingredients and pecans and mix until the dough comes together.
Chill the dough until it's hard enough to be able to roll your cookies.
Make balls at around 30 grams, roll them into the cinnamon sugar.
Bake at 150 degrees for around 6 to 7 minutes until the edge of the cookies gets golden. It's a chewy kind of cookie so the middle should be slightly undercooked.
Tips:
I like them round and chunky but feel free to play around with your shapes and size. Just remember if you make them big then will need a bit more cooking!
Chef Kate Gagliardi, Asbury Ocean Club oversees the operation and service of the hotel’s premier restaurant, The Gallery in the Asbury Ocean Club, a luxury hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Originally born in Staten Island, Chef Kate grew up in Jersey’s Manalapan area where she developed her knowledge and love for cooking attended culinary school. Stuffing is her favorite side at Thanksgiving, she shares her secret recipe!
Cornbread Stuffing Recipe
Cornbread:
4.75 c ap flour
2 3/4c cornmeal
2c sugar
1 ¼ T baking powder
1 t salt
3 eggs
4 c milk
½ c melted butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, milk, and butter. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until incorporated. Pour into 3 greased 9X9 baking pans. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Stuffing:
3 shallots, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 apples, diced
2 TB butter
1 c chicken stock
4 sage leaves, minced
In a large skillet, melt butter until it starts to bubble. Add shallot, celery, carrot, and sauté until it begins to turn translucent then add the apples. Continue sautéing until soft. Incorporate sage and then add cornbread and enough stock to saturate. Salt to taste. At this stage, you could place in a greased baking sheet and bake until crispy, use to stuff, or serve as is.
Executive Pastry Chef Melissa Logan, Montage Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton, SC - With almost two decades of professional culinary experience, Chef Melissa is no stranger to luxury, world-class service, drawing from an impressive career that expands from the West Coast and Hawaii, to the Bahamas and Grand Cayman. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Melissa jump-started her career in Las Vegas, as part of the opening team at The Venetian Resort & Casino, a 4,000 room hotel. Next, she took on executive positions at hotels such as The Grand Del Mar in San Diego, The Four Seasons Hualalai, and Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, where she refined her culinary skills, menu development, and staff management. She shares her famous Pumpkin Pie recipe, influenced by her southern setting.
Pumpkin Pie Recipe
(Yields 1 x 9” Pie)
Pie Dough
1 ¾ Cup Butter, Cold
2 ¾ Cup Cake Flour
1 ½ Cup Bread Flour
2/3 Cup Ice Water
1 tsp Salt
Steps:
Sift together the flours with the salt
Cut the cold butter into small cubes, cut this fat into the flour, salt mixture. This can be done by hand or preferably with a kitchen aid and paddle attachment as your hand can be hot and melt the butter. Only mix till the butter looks like little walnut-size pieces throughout the flour mixture, do not over mix this, it should not come together at all, it should look very dry and floury
Remove the ice from the water, slowly pour the water into the mixer while running on 1st or low speed
Allow this to mix just long enough to come together, you may not need all of the water or you may need a little extra, it should not be sticky but should be combined and not crumbly
Remove from mixer and wrap in plastic wrap, allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to chill the dough
Roll dough to 1/8” thick, relax the dough after rolling, cut out 12” circle
Spray the 9” pie tin with pan spray, mold the pie dough into the pie tin
Place the molded pie into the freezer for 30 minutes to set the dough
Blind bake the pie shell by placing another pie tin inside of the pie shell and putting beans or rice inside
Bake at 360°F for approximately 22-25 minutes, remove the top pie pan with rice or beans and place back in the oven and bake till light golden brown, an additional 10-15 minutes
Cool completely
Tip: Always par-bake your pie shell till almost done for pumpkin pie, it ensures the dough is cooked through before putting in the filling, if the edges start to get dark cover them lightly with tin foil till the pumpkin is set.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
8 oz Sugar
2 oz Brown Sugar
1.5 oz Cake Flour
3/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1.5 tsp Cinnamon
1 3/4 tsp Salt
10.5 oz Pumpkin Puree
4 oz Light Corn Syrup
12 oz Milk
13 oz Cream
Mix pumpkin, corn syrup milk, and cream and mix with a whisk till smooth, lowest speed, then add dry ingredients, mix till smooth again. Let rest for one hour then add:
2 eggs
2 oz Egg Whites (white of one egg)
Steps:
Mix with a whisk on the lowest speed till incorporated and pour into the pie shell.
Bake at 350° till set about 50 minutes to an hour, it should be slightly browned on top.