Thanksgiving Treat Troubles

I have a confession to make. I haven't done any prep-work or planning for Thanksgiving or Christmas yet. None.

So if you're anything like me and just now trying to figure out some last minute ideas, I thought I'd put a few together for you out of submissions we've received.

The first Pinstrosity submission was submitted from a craft day where they tried to do 4 different DIY projects. One of their attempts was to make this cornocopia treat. This could be used as a treat for kids, or even dressed up to be cute place cards for Thanksgiving place settings, or even a great centerpiece or decor item.

Photo and Tutorial by The Craft Patch

We were told in the submission that "If you wet the cones too long, they got too soggy. Not long enough, they wouldn't curl! If you microwaved them just 20 seconds as the site recommends, they broke when you tried to curl them! If you microwaved them longer, they were too hot to handle!"

The first place I go anymore for troubleshooting a tutorial is the comments section of the original post. Those are goldmines! This one was no different. From perusing the comments there were people that had the exact same troubles with this cute craft, and some that tried tweaks and found things that worked. Here's what I learned from others' experiences:

• Differences in microwave powers made a difference. Not every microwave runs on the same default power setting. Start with a lower power setting to keep the cone from getting as hot, but allowing it to be in the microwave for longer (to allow for more softening). Think of a piece of bread in the microwave vs the oven. In the oven it gets dried out and hard. In the microwave it gets soggy and limp. You want that softening! 
• These still may get pretty warm or hot...wearing oven mitts would be hard to work in but they could help you get the results you want. 
• Some people found greater success with the sugar cones in shape of waffle cones rather than with real waffle cones. 
• Some found that the brand of cone you used made a difference, but I didn't see any consistency with brand recommendations. Some had the name brands work better, some had the store brands work better. It may be less of a brand issue and more of a batch or age of the product issue. 

This 2nd Pinstrosity submission could be a fun treat, or even paired with a tag for a cute name card/place setting! 

Photo and Tutorial by Seventh House on the Left

Often we paraphrase submissions or just give one or two liner quotes, but this is one that you need to read the original of (I did split it into smaller paragraphs, but the words are all original!) as Morgan wrote this up so perfectly and humorously!

"This is a tale of Thanksgiving treat gone awry.  My boyfriend's parents were coming to visit my parents for the very first time around Thanksgiving.  I decided it would be fun to make something for everyone to enjoy and show off my creative and Martha-Stewart-like kitchen abilities.  I found this adorable link on pinterest and decided to go for it."  

"As you can see, I had everything except the chocolate wafers (even the Betty Crocker Cookie icing AND I even worked out which would be the limiting ingredient so as to buy enough of the rest of the ingredients), but it's just the structural base, so a sturdier cookie could work just as well seeing as how I had NO IDEA where to find Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers CookIes.  Plus, my cookie had a hole in the middle so the Nutter Butter was even MORE supported (I'm an engineer and I worry about the stability of my cookies). "Hunt them down" they said…right like the state of Kentucky has these fancy-pants cookies.  And "order them off the internet" you say?  It wasn't THAT important."

"Anyway, I was so excited to start working that I began when my mother put the turkey in the oven.  Here is where I encountered my first and most important mistake.  You know what happens when four women are all bustling about cooking Thanksgiving dinner in a kitchen the size of a college dorm room?  It gets HOT.  I should have worked on these in an industrial grade deep-freeze.  The temperature of the room was obviously way too hot for the "glue" aka the white cookie icing to harden enough for these suckers to set up.  They just kept falling apart like sad little cartoons having massive strokes."  

"My second mistake was not realizing how much TIME it would take to put all of these together.  I mean, I set aside at least 3 hours to do this!  Also, as it turns out, I don't have a whole lot of patience or skill when it comes to delicate cookie decorating.  What ended up happening is my boyfriend's mother (who is super crafty and has the patience of Mother Theresa) helped me assemble them.  She would put one together and I would put it in my deep-set pan and put it directly in the freezer.  I really felt like I was running a sweat shop and she was my poorly paid with no benefits employee."  

"As you can see, they turned out…..ok-ish.  I had my fill of pies, so I didn't actually try them, but the men-folk REALLY enjoyed them.  My boyfriend said that you wouldn't think they would taste good at all, but they flavors actually went well together, but it basically induces a diabetic coma.  I learned my lesson and probably will make them again in the future because they are just so cute, but will certainly work in a colder climate, put each in the freezer as soon as they are done, and take a muscle relaxer, listen to massage music, and drink some herbal tea while working on them."

And today's final Pinstrosity submission. These individual pie cups would be perfect for parties, kids, or even those large extended family plus their neighbors Thanksgivings.

Photo and Tutorial by Make and Takes

"Everything was going pretty well until it came time to take the finished pies out of my - admittedly vintage - muffin tins.  As you can see, they didn't.  Probably 20% of the crust stayed behind, firmly adhered to the metal.  What a mess!  Of course, they still tasted fine, but hardly the adorable little snacks I'd been hoping for!"

"I used an all-shortening pie crust recipe, but I don't think that was the problem.  It was clearly my tins.  Yes, I sprayed them with cooking spray, but I could have used more. But different tins would have been a better solution. Silicone "tins" would probably have been idea, since they're less sticky to begin with and can be deformed to un-mold.  In fact, if I'd just bought the disposable aluminum ones they probably would have worked better, because again they could have been deformed.  Or, as Mom pointed out as she was trying to help get the silly things out, I could have simply used cupcake papers.  >>face palm!<< Why didn't *I* think of that?!"

This is a pin that I have actually done! Well...not this pin exactly. There are a ton of mini-pies made in cupcake tin pins. I read a few and realized that all different types of pie crust recipe were being used and it didn't seem to make a difference, so I just used my normal all-shortening recipe from my Mom that I LOVE, and then followed the instructions on the can of pumpkin for pumpkin pie filling. As the crust to filling ratio is quite different with these than a normal pie they do bake up a little different. I made mine a few years ago so I don't remember exact details, but I do believe I made my crusts just slightly thinner than normal.

Sticking can definitely be a problem with these, more than with a normal pie. For my normal pies I can lay the crust in the pan and just gently press it in enough to get the right shape, but for these you do have to really press it in quite a bit to get it to mold to the cupcake shape of the pan and to get the creases pressed together. With all the extra pressing of the dough against the pan the chances for there to be sticking is much higher. My first pan of these mini pies stuck a little, so for the second pan instead of my normal Pam spray, I went to the "old fashioned" shortening and flour solution. 

Using a paper towel, a napkin, or your fingers, coat the cups up the cupcake tin. You don't want globs of shortening left, you want a smooth layer over the pan. Once you have that sprinkle some flour over the pan and shake it around to get an even dusting of flour stuck to the shortening. Then press in your pie crusts. This will help prevent extra sticking from having to press the creases and mold the dough!


I love the original ideas of each of these pins and the attempts made at them! Reading their submissions and then reading comments on the original sites just helps reinforce that "Life isn't Pinterest Perfect, but that's okay!" These 3 projects are not impossible projects, but they may take some tweaking sometimes as we all have different situations going on in our homes! If you give one of these a try, let us know how it turned out!