Thanksgiving Fingerfood Dessert Buffet...

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
early I know, but I'm so pedantic about preparing menus in ADVANCE thank you very much.

While the grand T'giving desserts of pumpkin, mince, pecan & apple pies; carrot & gingerbread cakes entombed in sweet buttery cream cheese goo, etc. are all wonderful, I always see everyone groaning in agony trying to shove servings of the aforementioned down their throat (got to try everything!!!) after the big feast, and thought this year I would make a fingerfood dessert buffet that people could select from for "little bites" without doing themselves bodily injury.

To that end I decided to adapt some traditional favorites:

Gingerbread petit fours (little cubes of gingerbread sandwiched together with orange marmalade, coated in orange flower water flavored fondant).

Pumpkin cake petit fours (little squares of pumpkin cake with a cream cheese frosting rosette piped on each).

Selection of miniature tarts (mince, chocolate & pumpkin-spice mousse, cherry, and apple fillings).

I'm also thinking about including Pecan Tassies (LOVE those).

So my question is: Does anybody have more ideas for tiny late fall sweet nibbles to include with the above ideas?

Also, tips/ideas on mass producing several dozens of miniature pastry shells would be welcome as well! (my usual method is to make little balls of dough and "stamp" them into mini-muffin tins with a little rounded wooden knob).

TIA!

 
Hi Richard, would you be interested in a doing something with fruit, such as fresh figs?

Not sure if they'd be available around Thanksgiving, but maybe you could sub dried figs? Anyway, they're stuffed with an orange cream cheese filling and drizzled with semi-sweet chocolate. I haven't tried this recipe myself yet, but it's gotten great reviews on Recipezaar. Plus I posted it on another forum and it was well received. Let me know if you want me to post it.

 
I also did truffles, spoonfuls (from the Asian food store) of mousse, lemon daisys (from)

puff pastry,Chocolate seashells filled with a kind of espresso ganache,and mini profiteroles.

Lots of help in Gale Gand's "just a bite"

 
Meryl great idea

but I think you just gave me the recipe! Unless there's some surprises in that filling ; ) Let me know if there's more too it than I was thinking from looking at the description.

 
Cyn, did you

make the chocolate seashells? If so, how did you do it, molds? Also, what are lemon daisys, they sound intriguing.

Great ideas. Thanks.

 
There are a few twists, such as nutmeg, black pepper, pine nuts, etc. I'm posting the recipe

for you anyway, so you can play around with it, as I know you will!

STUFFED FIGS DRIZZLED WITH CHOCOLATE

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
10 fresh figs, washed, stems removed
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (one reviewer used a little juice from the orange)
1 orange, sliced

1. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, cooled pine nuts, orange zest, nutmeg and pepper, mixing until smooth.

2. Slice each fig in half lengthwise.

3. Press about a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture into the cut side of each fig half.

4. Melt chocolate and butter in micro 1 minute; add Grand Marnier, stir till creamy.

5. Drizzle over stuffed figs.

6. Garnish on a platter with orange slices.

posted by Rita L - Recipezaar

http://www.recipezaar.com/68911

 
Unfortunately, no. It's one of those books I've been meaning to buy, because

it's been so highly recommended, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

 
Oh Meryl, another question.

Just in case I can't locate fresh figs, have you ever thought about doing this with dried figs? Would it be to rich? Is that even possible? LOL

 
I don't see why not - I've seen recipes for stuffed figs using dried. I wonder what would happen

if they were reconstituted? I've seen a recipe or two that heated the dried figs in water and wine or brandy (barely covered with the liquid), until softened. Not sure what the outcome would be - you'd probably have to test it out.

For my taste, the dried wouldn't be too rich with the filling, since the orange cream cheese has no added sugar, and should be nice and tangy - good contrast against the sweet figs. So, if fresh weren't available or if they were simply tasteless, I'd use the dried.

Hey, ya want me to come over there and help you experiment with this before Thanksgiving??? (I wish)smileys/smile.gif

 
I'd never heard of Jungle Jim's, so I went to their website. Wow! Tell them to open a branch

in Greensboro!

 
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