We've done the starters, the main event, and the sides. Time for dessert!
Triple-Chocolate Pumpkin Pie (Martha Stewart Living November 2008)
Zach's sister Cassidy was in charge of desserts for our Thanksgiving dinner. We didn't give her any direction other than "BRING US PIE!" Turns out, she knocked it out of the park!
We had initially planned on making an additional dessert -- a spiced cranberry bread pudding. But when Cassidy showed up with these two decadent pies, we tossed our plans our the window.
We had actually considered making this Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie ourselves after seeing it in the November issue of Martha Stewart Living. But Zach was a little unsure about the combination of chocolate and pumpkin -- might it be too weird?
Suffice it to say, we've all seen the light. This pie is a smooth, creamy treat. And the chocolate and flavors actually play off each other extremely well. The pumpkin taste doesn't compete, really. It just adds an amazing depth to the chocolate flavor -- almost an earthy, husky, semisweet taste that balances the chocolate and keeps it from being too sweet.
Ritz Mock Apple Pie (from the Kraft website via Pete Bakes)

The other pie that Cassidy brought also happened to be one we'd been
curious to try. Earlier this year, our fellow DC food blogger Pete
Bakes did a blind taste test
of his mom's apple pie recipe vs. a "mock" apple pie that doesn't
actually contain any apples. (Pete's blog is great, by the way,
although we feel like we gain weight just by reading about all his
delicious baked goods.)
Anyway, when Pete failed his own taste
test and picked the mock pie as the real deal, our curiosity was
piqued: How in the world could this recipe transform Ritz crackers,
butter, lemon and cinnamon into a convincing apple pie?
Well, we
still don't know how, but we can tell you it's true. This dish tastes
exactly like a classic apple pie. Eating it is like experimenting with
culinary illusion -- you know it shouldn't taste anything like apples,
and yet it does. It's almost disconcerting.
Truth be told, in the
future we'd probably rather just make a pie with actual apples (this
mock pie may have the taste down, but there's something to be said for
the texture of a traditional apple pie).
But if you're in a pinch for time, this recipe could be Heaven-sent
-- you can crush a stack of Ritz crackers a heckuva lot faster than you
can peel, core and chop a half-dozen apples.
Keep reading for the recipes for these pies.