Thanksgiving Treats!

So all the Americans reading this will know that last Thursday was Thanksgiving, which is a day to celebrate the blessing of the harvest, but what you may not know is that Thanksgiving actually has huge English roots. Thanksgiving dates all the way back to the 16th Century when Henry VIII was on the throne, so why do most people believe it is just a North American thing? Well here in England, although we don’t have a specific date that we observe every year but we do however celebrate Thanksgiving. You may remember when you were at school and you had to bring in a can of food to donate to a charity, well this is our Thanksgiving. So this blog isn't just for the Americans reading!

Well that’s enough of the history lesson, let’s move onto the food! This week I decided to live up to my name of The English American by making some traditional American Thanksgiving treats for my family and friends, so first up is my first ever attempt at a Pie…Pumpkin Pie! The recipe I used is the one on the can of pumpkin puree and although it took me 3 trips to 3 different stores in order to source the puree, it was all worth it. So here is the recipe I used:

9oz shortcrust pastry

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 x 425g can Libby's Solid Pack Pumpkin

6oz granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I used ground nutmeg instead of ground cloves)

1/2 pint Carnation Evaporated Milk

As this was my first pie, I decided to buy ready-to-roll pastry. So once the oven was heated at 220C, my first task was to roll out the pastry and place this into a greased flan tin. I then covered this with baking/parchment paper, filled the pie with baking beads and put it in the oven for 15 minutes to blind bake.

While that was in the oven, it was time to make the filling. This was pretty simple as you just combine all the other ingredients into a bowl, until everything is mixed together nicely. Once the pie crust has had chance to bake for the 15 minutes, take this out the oven and set it aside for a few minutes. Once you’ve managed to get the baking beads out of the pie (don’t touch them as they are extremely hot, as my finger found out), pour in the filling until it reaches the top of the pie crust. Turn the oven down to 180C and let it bake for 40 minutes. I was pretty happy with how my pie turned out, however next time I know to just roll out the pastry a little bit more as it shrunk up quite a bit on the blind bake. You will see this in my photos but it did taste absolutely delicious!

Next up on my Thanksgiving menu was a Sweet Potato Casserole. This is the one thing I remember most about my first ever Thanksgiving at the Doherty’s, well minus having turkey stolen off my plate by a funny ol' chap. It stuck out from everything else because it had marshmallows on the top but it wasn't a dessert...crazy I hear you say but just wait til you try it! This was another really simple recipe and here it is:

2 ½ pounds of peeled, cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

2 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup milk

2 cups mini marshmallows

Once you have peeled, cooked and mashed the sweet potatoes, combine these with the rest of the ingredients (except the marshmallows) and make sure this is mixed well. Place this into a medium sized casserole dish and sprinkle the marshmallows evenly on top. Put this in the oven at 175C for 30 minutes or until the marshmallows have turned a lovely golden brown. Due to the sugar, marshmallows and sweet potatoes, this is quite a sweet dish but it is delicious. Even my mum who doesnt have much of a sweet tooth, absolutely loved it!

Thanks for reading guys and please share my blog with your friends and family!