Dessert overload

When I tell someone I’m going to bring dessert, what I really mean is that I’m going to go overboard and try to make everyone sick with sugar. Here’s a dessert plate that I made for a dinner party last weekend.

A mini caramel apple, the richest hot chocolate ever, and a little pumpkin cake with maple whipped cream and a caramel sauce drizzle.

The recipe I posted a few years back is still THE BEST pumpkin cake recipe ever. As long as you don’t overbake, the cake comes out so light and so flavorful. It’s really an amazing recipe. This year I used homemade kefir instead of milk and lemon juice. It really does not need any frosting, so I just made whipped cream with the maple extract, and it was the perfect amount of sweetness. (My whipped cream is all cream no whip in this picture. It’s day-old whipped cream. You know how it goes)

The caramel apples were pretty straightforward – melt caramels from the store. Easypeasy. A little sea salt added to the melted caramel made everything seem more grown up.

The hot chocolate recipe is this supposed Napa Rose Hot Chocolate recipe. The Napa Rose at Disney’s Grand Californian hotel serves a tiny cup of melted chocolate served with tiny donuts. It is literally a gold-plated dessert, which is why they can get away with selling it for $15. This version costs significantly less. There’s an entire can of condensed milk in the recipe. I didn’t like the recipe as written, so I added a lot more whole milk and a bit more heavy cream, and I made sure to run it through a sieve before serving. It looks like the sludge that Dale Cooper tries to drink in the red room, but it’s really good.

When combined, this dessert trio has it all – light spiced cake, rich hot chocolate, and a crunchy, slightly salted apple.

Noms

While I completely understand this video's annoyance with the buzzwords "pumpkin spice" I have purchased and enjoyed several delicious pumpkin things so far this season. 

 

Pumpkin Pie Truffles from See's

Last year, these were terrible, but they have been dramatically improved (or maybe I'm confusing them with something else?). The filling is soft, and mildly flavored so it is totally delightful, and not a fake cinnamon mouth punch. 

Random stuffs

Pumpkin pie almonds (my favorite from last year), pumpkin crunch popcorn (the best popcorn ever), and Jelly Belly candy corn. It claims to be premium candy corn, and it sincerely is better than Brach's. It is not grainy at all, and it is not as painfully sweet. It has a smooth texture and a nice smell that makes me want to eat more than 3 pieces at a time. 

Pumpkin frozen custard from Strickland's

Evidently Irvine, CA is the only Strickland's outside the Midwest. I feel very lucky because they have the smoothest, best-tasting frozen treat I know of. The Irvine location has flavors that I assume are not served at the Ohio stores like lychee and Thai iced tea. They always manage to blend the fruit flavor with the heavy custard, so it was no surprise that pumpkin custard with toasted pecans was a delicious treat. It's custard, so it is always served in a funny stretched shape that is totally unlike hard ice cream.