The Crisp that Stole Thanksgiving (backup vocals by pumpkin pie bars)

For Thanksgiving, my mom and I were in charge of desserts. Oh, what a task. Having to be around sugar and butter and chocolate... well, someone's gotta do it. I don't bake very often, and I work very hard to avoid anything resembling pastry dough. For some reason I just don't make it. It seems like a lot of work to me, but that's probably because I don't do it often enough. Hmm. I think I may have made pie crusts once or twice but my aversion is so strong that I'm sure my lack of definate memory has to do with the traumatic failure of said crust. Therefore, my mom got pie duty. Pecan pie, to be exact. We don't cook with corn syrup, so she substituted brown rice syrup, sucanat and a wee bit of molasses for sticky sweet stuff. I was a little wary at first, but it turned out even better than your typical pecan pie, partly because I wasn't prying sticky gluey nuts out of my teeth for hours. And there was whipped cream. Of course. Because you just can't have pie without whipped cream.

I did the pumpkin pie. Now, you may ask how someone so pathologically adverse to pie crusts winds up making pumpkin pies. Easily, I would answer. Just turn them into pumpkin pie bars. Aha! A month or so ago, I stumbled across a recipe for pumpkin pie bars with an oatmeal cookie crust and did a test run. You know, just to make sure I wouldn't feed my lovely family some inedible leaden mush. Not becuase I would enjoy them. Nope. And if Mr. Seasonality tells you that I ate almost the entire pan myself after yanking it out of his hands, ignore him. Best of all, I think, they can so easily be made gluten free! Not many desserts will do that for you.

Then, I thought that perhaps there should be a third dessert just to have options. Because even though I don't understand it, there are some people out there who don't like pecan pie or pumpin pie. So I decided to do something easy and quickly put together, but that wouldn't steal the show from the pies, and ended up with an apple cranberry and orange crisp to keep things festive. To my amazement, the crisp ended up being the favorite dessert of the evening. Not only tasty, but because it is fruit, it's easier to trick myself into thinking that I'm actually being healthy! I chose to sweeten the filling with agave syrup, but you could easily substitute with honey or maple syrup. Or plain sugar, but increase the orange juice.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Adapted from the recipe found on Framed which was adapted from the recipe by Joy the Baker.

Pre-heat your oven to 350. Line a 13x9 pan with parchment paper or just grease and dust with flour.

For the crust, cream together:

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix in:

1 cup oat flour

1/3 cup millet flour (or use any combination of flours you want to make a total of 1 1/3 cups)

1 cup oats (not instant oats)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Pat the mixture into the pan and bake for 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, for the filling, beat lightly:

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add and whisk well until there are no lumps:

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 tblsp pumpkin pie spice (I used a mix of cinnamon, allspice, cardemom and ginger)

Mix in:

1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree (or if you have it, homemade pumpkin puree)

Pour over the cookie crust and sprinkle over the top:

Chocolate chips- as much as you want

Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool. Cut into squares. Devour.

Apple Cranberry Orange Crisp

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

For the crispy topping:

¼ c brown sugar

¾ cup sugar

1 cup oat flour

1 cup millet flour

¾ c oats

6 tblsp butter

1 tsp almond extract

For the filling:

16 oz cranberries

6 or so apples, peeled, cored and chopped into bits (I used fuji apples)

1/2 c dried cranberries

zest of 2 valencia oranges

juice of ½ orange

3/4 c agave syrup (taste the mixture and sweeten more if needed)

1 tblsp cinnamon

Pour filling into a 13 x 9 pan. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the top. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the filling juices get thick and bubbly. Eat with lots of whipped cream.