Category Archives: Holiday

Black Bottom Caramel Oatmeal Pie

Garlic Confit Mashed Potatoes

The internet will try to tell you otherwise, but I feel you should know that the absolute best garlicky mashed potatoes are completely free of butter and cream.

Yeah, I’m here to sell you on vegan mashed potatoes. Please don’t leave!

You’ll be missing out on luxurious homemade garlic confit that’s been slow-simmered to rich, fragrant perfection and then mashed into soft russet potatoes. Uh huh. Garlic Confit Mashed Potatoes are where it’s at, y’all. Only the best garlicky potato bliss for our Thanksgiving tables, am I right???

You can get a jump start on making your own holiday Garlic Confit Mashed Potatoes right now! The confit can be made up to two weeks ahead (yeah, Thanksgiving is only two weeks away). Just simmer it while you’re doing something else and then stick it in the fridge until you need it. Let it come to room temperature and then mash it into these rich, smooth, oh so good potatoes.

You’ll notice that the garlic confit recipe asks for you to peel three heads of garlic, which probably seems insane, but fear not! You can either purchase your garlic already peeled *or* take the DIY easy way out, following one of those hacks you sometimes come across on social media, which is what I did.

I simply separated all the garlic cloves, put them in a covered bowl (I used a thin cutting board as a lid) and shook the living daylights out of the whole contraption for about two minutes, until all the papery skins had at least begun to slip off. Boom, done. After that, it’s just a matter of slicing off the ends before confit-ing, which again, is just simmering at a very low heat. So easy!

One more tip for perfect confit and mashed potatoes: buy fresh olive oil. Besides garlic, olive oil is the primary flavoring agent here, so you want it fresh fresh fresh. If you want to use a less expensive oil here, I’d go with grapeseed, but again, make sure it’s fresh. You don’t want some slightly “off” oil to ruin your potatoes.

I mean, how could you not want these?! They’re the smooth side dish you know, but absolutely bursting with garlic flavor (and not much else)! Beyond their flavor, I love that they are vegan —at such a meat- and dairy-forward meal, I always worry about the vegans at the table having things to eat. And while you can’t subsist on Garlic Confit Mashed Potatoes alone, I wouldn’t mind giving it a try, you know?

Garlic Confit Mashed Potatoes
makes about 6-8 servings

Garlic Confit:
3 heads garlic
1 cup olive oil

Mashed Potatoes:
3 lbs russet potatoes
cold tap water
1/2-3/4 batch garlic confit
Kosher or sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Make the confit. Peel the garlic by separating each head into cloves and putting them in a small mixing bowl. Top it with a lid or another object that will create a seal and shaking it until the papery peels start to remove themselves, about 2 minutes. Remove and discard the peels, then trim off the ends and any imperfections on the garlic cloves.

In a small saucepan, combine peeled garlic and olive oil, ensuring all garlic is submerged. Bring the mixture to a simmer over the lowest heat setting on your stove. Let simmer 30 minutes, until cloves are soft, but not browned. Set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes. You may also make the confit up to two weeks ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Just make sure that the oil is covering all the garlic. Bring confit back to room temperature before using in potatoes.

To make the mashed potatoes, start by scrubbing, drying and peeling the russet potatoes. Cut into 1-inch cubes and place in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Cover with cold water by about 1-inch and season well with salt. Bring to a boil and let cook for about 15 minutes, until fork-tender.

While the potatoes are cooking use a fork to mash about half (1/2 cup) of the garlic in the confit.

Reserve about 1 cup of the starchy potato cooking water. Drain potatoes and return them to the pot. Mash with a potato masher (or a ricer if you have one). Add mashed garlic, along with about 3/4 cup of the garlicky oil and 1/4 cup of the starchy cooking water. Mash well, adding more cooking water (and/or oil from the confit) as needed to achieve the desired texture. Season to taste with salt.

Serve potatoes with more garlic confit on top, along with a sprinkle of freshly-ground black pepper.

Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Pecan Galette

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Every Thanksgiving, I forget that I like making pie. I mean, I know I like it, but I forget that I like it more than eating pie (and I quite like eating pie). There’s something soothing about the whole lengthy process of lovingly rolling, crimping and otherwise helicopter parenting a large pastry that just does something for me.

But you know what I like even more than making pie? Making galettes, which is like making pie, but it takes half the time and it doesn’t matter what the final product looks like because it’s supposed to be rustic. Rustic is my middle name.

Just kidding, it’s Ann.

But I digress. Today, I’m taking my favorite pie—pecan, naturally—and folding it up into a rustic galette.

Yes! You can make non-fruit galettes! Here we have all the sticky, crunchy, flaky-crusted magic of traditional pecan pie, but made in a relative snap. No crimping, no endless chills, no waiting half a day for it to be cool enough to slice. This Pecan Galette is Pecan Pie’s low maintenance sister.

The major hurdle here (and in all custard pies) is containing the liquid. I tried assembling this one two different ways, first adding the complete filling before folding, then taking a note from pie queen Erin McDowell and adding the pecans, folding, then pouring in the liquid before baking. It will come as no surprised that that the pie queen’s method was much less frustrating. It will feel strange to assemble a galette in this order, but it actually makes perfect sense. And you can’t argue with the results.

One of my favorite things about making galettes is that they can be sliced up within a couple hours of baking. That said, if you’re looking to work ahead for Thanksgiving, you can bake this a day or two ahead of time and it will be divine.

Oh yes, I do love a galette.

Pecan Galette
makes 1 galette

1/2 recipe All-Butter Pie Dough or other good single crust recipe
1 1/2 cups pecan halves, roughly chopped
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (or mild honey or light corn syrup)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, room temperature

For assembly:
1 large egg
1 teaspoon water

Arrange oven racks in the upper and lower positions. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Place pecans on a dry rimmed sheet pan. Bake for 5-7 minutes until toasted and fragrant. Do not burn. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, nutmeg, salt, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar and vanilla. Add melted butter, followed by egg. Set aside.

Flour a surface and a rolling pin. Roll pie dough out until it is 1/8-inch thick. Trim edges so that you have a 12-inch circle. Transfer to prepared pan. Mound toasted pecans in the middle of the dough, leaving at least 2 inches of excess on all sides. Fold dough over the pecans to contain them. Slowly (!) pour liquid mixture over pecans, stopping frequently to tap the pan on the counter to help the liquid settle. Continue until all liquid is in the galette.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg and water. Brush mixture on exposed pie dough.

Bake galette on the upper rack for 25 minutes. Move to the lower rack. Bake for 20 more minutes, tenting with foil if anything begins to brown too quickly. Crust will firm up as the galette cools.

Let galette cool completely in the pan on a rack. Remove to a cutting board. Slice and serve.

Galette will keep covered at room temperature for two days, or in the refrigerator for up to five.

The Best Way to Mix Pie Dough in the Food Processor

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For years, I have been telling you to mix your pie dough by hand. In fact, I have insisted.

The Best Way to Mix Pie Dough in the Food Processor

In the seven Thanksgiving seasons that this blog has seen, I have never put a food processor method for pie dough on here. I thought I was above it and that hand-mixed dough was far superior, but that was then, when I was young(er) and could still move after a full day of work. But now, at 36, I must admit that I was wrong (or at least wrong enough) and have discovered the joy of making batches of pie dough in five minutes in my food processor.

Of course, people have been making pie dough in the food processor for decades, so this is nothing new. My resistance is not because I’m a Luddite (which I am), but because I find most food processor pie doughs to lack flakiness, because people tend to process the butter too much. Visible butter is the sign of a future flaky crust; the water in the butter evaporates and creates buttery lil’ air pockets. When you mix dough by hand, it’s much easier to ensure that you get visible butter chunks, but that takes time and energy that I do not currently have, so I have figured a way to make the food processor method work for me. Here’s my method for All-Butter Pie Dough in the food processor.

First, blitz the dry ingredients together. This will evenly mix the sugar and salt into the flour. Also, it looks like freshly fallen snow and that delights me.

Next, add the COLD cubed butter and pulse it until the largest pieces are the size of marbles. This should take a maximum 5-10 pulses. Don’t let the butter get to the standard “large peas” phase or there will not have visible butter in the final product. If the butter is over-processed, the dry ingredients and butter may be transferred to a bowl where the liquid may be added by hand. Otherwise…

Pulse in the liquid ingredients. For my All-Butter Pie Dough, I use ice water and vinegar. Add liquid slowly through the food processor’s feed tube just until the dough gathers together. It should look clumpy.

After that simply halve the dough, form it into disks, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for an hour or up to three days. For longer storage, triple wrap the pie dough in plastic and freeze it for up to six months.

I could leave it at that, but I know pie dough freaks some people out, so I’m going to give you some tips for pie dough success. These aren’t secrets, just things I wish someone would have gently told me before I ever made my first crust. Years of hearing food personalities telling you that pie dough (and for that matter, yeasted anything) is difficult to make are not easily shaken, but I promise that this is way simpler than it’s been made out to be.

Measure all the ingredients ahead of time and chill the ones that need to be chilled. This goes for any pie dough recipe you are making. Ideally, you should do this with every recipe, but I understand that you live in the real world. Nevertheless, doing it here will keep you from having soft butter and make everything accessible so you can be efficient.

Move quickly, but don’t rush! Resist the urge to add all the ingredients at the same time. There are three steps here: blitz the dry ingredients, pulse in the butter, pulse in the liquid ingredients. Each one has to be done just to a certain point because, as with hand-mixed pie dough, we want visible butter in our finished product. Visible butter = flaky pie crust.

The fridge is your friend. Getting overwhelmed or over-warmed? You have the option of throwing your entire food processor (minus the stand) in the refrigerator at anytime. A 15 minute chill can do your dough and your mental health a world of good.

Make multiple batches at once. Your food processor is already out and dirty after one batch and pie dough is very freezer-friendly. You can spend less than half an hour mixing dough and then be stocked for the holidays and beyond. Simply thaw disks of dough overnight in the fridge when you want to make pie.

Do not make pie dough if you do not enjoy it. I mean it! If you are indifferent to the flavor of homemade vs. store bought pie crust, or if making pie dough brings you more agony than joy, please please please do not waste your time making it. Baking should be fun, period. Full stop.

I, for one, find making pie dough very fun and look forward to making three new Thanksgiving pies for you every year. Here’s a sneak peek at the first! It’s coming Friday.

Still have questions? I made a video of this process last year. Click here to see how it’s done!

All-Butter Pie Dough in the Food Processor
makes 2 crusts

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
~2/3 cup water, very cold
ice cubes
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt

Cut butter into cubes. Put it on a plate and freeze it while you prepare the other ingredients.

Pour apple cider vinegar into a liquid measuring cup. Add cold water up to the 2/3 cup mark. Add a few ice cubes. Set aside.

In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar and salt until combined.

Add butter and pulse until the largest pieces are the size of marbles.

Slowly add 1/2 cup of the liquid through the feed tube of the food processor, pulsing occasionally, to combine. Continue to add more liquid and pulse just until the dough clumps.

Turn dough onto a surface and give it a couple of quick kneads to help it come together, if needed. Divide dough into two equal pieces and fork into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days. For longer storage, triple wrap your disks in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using.

Flour a surface and a rolling pin. Unwrap one disk of dough. Use rolling pin to roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness (about 14 inches in diameter for a 9-inch pie plate). For easiest rolling, roll dough in one direction, turning it one quarter turn after each roll. Re-flour surface and rolling pin as needed.

To transfer to a pie plate, carefully fold dough into quarters. Place point in the center of the pie plate and carefully unfold. Fit it to the pan, trim any excess overhang to 1-inch and crimp.

Proceed with your pie recipe as written.