Thanksgiving Party


You will need:

one recipe Genoise cake
one recipe Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache, in which almonds are substitute for pecans
two recipes Pumpkin Cream Mousselin
one recipe Pecan Paste

a lot of chocolate leaves

for the Pumpkin Cream Mousselin:

250 ml whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean

3 egg yolks
100 g brown sugar

30 g corn starch
30 g white flour
5 g cinnamon 

130 g butternut squash - rosted 

 120 g unsalted butter, softened 

 1. Roast the pumpkin the day before. Peel the butternut squash and cut in small pieces. Roast on a parchment paper, until softened. Let it cool. Work the pieces in a blender, until purée consistency. Close in a box and refrigerate. 

 2. Scale the dry ingredients in a bowl.

 3. Beat slightly the egg yolks and two thirds of the sugar . Mix in the dry ingredients.

 3. Scrape the seeds from half vanilla bean into the milk, add the last third of the sugar and bring to boil. 

 4. Pour half of the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring constantly (dissolving the sugar). Pour the yolk mixture back to the pot where the other half of the milk is and place over medium heat. Stir constantly.

 5. Place the pastry cream in a deep dish, cover it with cling foil, (the foil should touch the cream) avoiding crust to be formed. Leave to cool at room temperature. 

 6. Beat in the pumpkin purée.

 7. Whip in the softened butter.

 8. Cover with foil and refrigerate, until needed.

for the pecan paste:

200 g pecans
200 g custard sugar

1. Toast the pecans for 5-7 min at 180 C.
2. Caramelize the sugar. Add the pecans and stir to cover all the nuts in caramel.
3. Spread on a parchment paper and let cool.
4. Brake the pieces of caramelized pecans into a blender and pulse to crush. Continue blending, until the paste is formed.
5. Store in a jar, until needed.


Thanksgiving is all about giving gratitude, respect and sharing autumn taste. I love this holiday. Everything my sous chef :) and I did, we did with love and devotion. It was the best time spent collecting leaves, making them into chocolate duplicates, testing the recipe, and choosing to sleep less at the night before Thanksgiving, so to manage to finish our gifts. What precious time for me...!


The combination of dark chocolate and Pumpkin Mousselin cream is just indescribable. A definite autumn taste and at the same time very delicate and high class.







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