This Thanksgiving, I refuse to make Pumpkin Pie. This is not a huge digression. My Irish husband (as in Irish-Irish, not Irish American, as in from Dublin) refuses all pumpkin. His taste is the anti-pumpkin-spice everything. Culturally, the Irish do not eat pumpkins. Rather, they admire them from afar, on a friend's front steps, perhaps at Halloween, but then forgotten and certainly never consumed.
     That is all reason enough not to make pumpkin pie. But there's this other thing. My pie allergy. See the previous blog post for more details. So, although I'm volunteering to make a Thanksgiving dessert, it will be neither pie nor pumpkin.
     It must reflect autumnal coolness and shortening days. It must, as well, contain jam or marmalade. This goes without saying. Jam and marmalade constantly need to be used up in my house. In fact, where most people have gallons of milk, lovely fresh produce, perhaps a whole 30-pound turkey in their fridge, I have jam and marmalade. Quarts of it. Gallons of it. Jars and jars and jars of it.
     I will combine my need to dispose of jam with my deep desire to finally execute Suzanne Goin's Hazelnut-Brown Butter Cake but with jam instead of her sauteed pears (from her luscious cookbook Sunday Suppers at Lucques.) But that's not enough. I will take my friend and pastry chef Melissa's idea and make it a layer cake, in order to use the jam. The top may also include homemade toffee bark that I'll make with my cousin Jill, this Sunday. We'll see. With all the jam-making and wrapping this time of year, anything I present to the Thanksgiving feast will feel like a miracle. Let's hope it's a chocolate-hazelnut-jammy miracle this year. See below for the recipe and I'll post a nice photo if it turns out. Let me know how yours tastes.

This recipe is adapted from Suzanne Goin.

5 oz. blanched hazelnuts
1/2 pound unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean
1 1/3 c. confectioner's sugar
1/3 c. all purpose flour
5 extra-large egg whites
3 Tb. sugar
1 c. heavy cream

3 cups jam, marmalade or chocolate ganache
Homemade toffee for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans. Melt butter and add vanilla pod, after slicing in half. Cook butter 6-8 minutes, until it smells nutty.

Grind hazelnuts with confectioner's sugar in a food processor until they're completely ground. Add flour and pulse to combine.

Add egg whites and sugar to a stand mixer and mix on high for 4-5 minutes, until they form stiff peaks. Fold in dry ingredients.

Pour into pans and cook for 1 hour. Cool for 30 minutes. Layer half of jam on bottom layer of cake and slide second on top. Top the whole cake with more jam, marmalade or ganache. Garnish with toffee, roasted hazelnuts, candied orange peel or persimmon leaves.

  Last Thanksgiving, my Aunt Megan and Uncle Chuck invited us to their house in Lake Arrowhead, California, to enjoy an epic feast. We brought the kids and wound our way up to their perch in the hills. Before we could ask questions, my aunt formed us into a sugar cookie making assembly line. My stepson dumped the ingredients into the stand mixer and my daughter flipped the switch to high. Flour flew like snow. Then, my aunt rolled the giant dough ball between layers of cling film (an ingenious technique) to flatten it. We all took turns choosing cookie cutters, mashing the metal shapes into soft dough until our arms and wrists ached. The best reward was the simple, perfect pleasure of the warm cookie. Were they iced or decorated? I honestly can't remember. I do know that I ate probably 300 of those crispy, perfect nibbles over the next three days of feasting. My aunt set them out on an array of plates and set them anywhere that looked lonely and in need of a cookie. I never even strayed close to the profusion of pies. The cookies kept me going all through the mounds of dishes, prepping and packing.
    True confession. I've always been a cookie monster. You can take your pies, your cakes, your tarts. I'll take cookies, but only good ones, please, and lots of them. So, my aunt found my perfect soft spot. Crisp, buttery, slightly salty cookies. As this year's Thanksgiving nears, my only change is to add a dollop of Red Hen Cannery jam or marmalade in the middle. I especially recommend using my Spiced Wine and Orange Marmalade, only available through the holidays, but the choice is really up to you. The recipe below is based on Martha Stewart's amazing "Basic Sugar Cookie" recipe. Enjoy and let me know how your baking goes! These cookies will take you from Thanksgiving through the holidays and all the way to sweet Valentine's Day. Hearts with Strawberry Vanilla Jam, perhaps? Whatever your occasion, I promise these cookies (plus my preserves) will get you through.

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter (or omit the salt above if you use salted butter)
1 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 jar Red Hen Cannery Spice Wine and Orange Marmalade
1/2 c. powdered sugar (for rolling out dough)

Directions: Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Roll out cookies between cling film and then move flattened dough to surface lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Use cookie cutters  (or the lid of Mason jar) to cut out shapes or rounds. Transfer to a baking sheet. Gently indent them in the center with a spoon and dollop with marmalade. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-12 minutes.