Thanksgiving dessert feast: awesome. Post-feast sugar crash: not awesome. Solution? Dessert recipes that don't sacrifice taste, but won't leave you with a sugar hangover that makes you thankful for nothing. These recipes are light but are made with real ingredients, sparing on the refined sugar, and packed with fall flavours. Bring them to your Thanksgiving potluck and impress all your sweet toothed pals.
Apple pies baked in apples
These little darlin's are so cute you won't believe how simple they are to make. You'll need 5 Granny Smith apples, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. each cinnamon and vanilla, and 1 refrigerated pie crust. To make, hollow out the apples with a corer but leave the bottom in tact. Spoon out the fruit along the apple wall as best you can. Toss the spooned out fruit into a bowl, and chop roughly. Add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to the apples and toss to combine. Spoon the mixture back into the apple cups.
Then, cut your pre-made pie crust into thin strips and place it over each apple in a lattice. Brush each top with melted butter. Stick the apples in a baking dish with enough water to cover just the bottom. Bake for 20 minutes at 375. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
More creative and seasonal than after-dinner chocolate truffles, these morsels combine coconut, roasted sweet potato, pecans and warm spices and roll them into a bite-sized version of sweet potato pie that won't cloy your taste buds. After the cake pop craze of 2014, it's about time there was a "perfectly sized treat" that isn't lying to us. Simply mash all ingredients together, roll into balls and refridgerate for 30 minutes. You won't miss the crust.
The versatile trifle is known for it's decor-factor as well as taste, incorporating bright, layered colours of fruit, jam, and yellow custard. The beauty of a trifle is that it can be adapted to all seasons, using whatever fruit is in. This fall-appropriate roasted pear trifle stacks raspberries and a ton of bosc pears between layers of custard, apricot preserves and sliced almonds.
Don't knock it before you try it. Unconventional as it is, trust us on this – beet and chocolate go together like cream cheese and frosting. If you like red velvet, you'll dig it. Roasted beet pure adds a slightly earthy taste to this cake that just compliments the richness of dark cocoa. The higher quality cocoa powder you use, the better. (Vegans: surf around on this boss-lady blogger Susan Voisin's blog and find some other vegan desserts worth a try.)
What's Thanksgiving without a pumpkin dessert? This cheesecake doesn't use cream cheese at all but gets it's texture from Greek Yogurt, which is just as thick and creamy and delicious and a heck of a lot lighter. A simple maple pecan crust means you won't have to mess around with any fragile pastry, either.
Has fall awakened your inner culinary wizard? Ours too. Check out more in-season healthy eats to add to your Thanksgiving menu.
