Fall recipes: French onion pot roast, squash soup and cider sangria

Eight fall recipes from cooks on TikTok, each with the cook's own video and the full recipe written out underneath it: two dinners, three bakes and three drinks. The Dutch oven, boards, pitcher and glasses that go with them are in the Lowcountry Magazine store, from shops in Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Savannah.

Dinners

French Onion Pot Roast, @platedprettypgh

A chuck roast braised for three hours in a pot of slow-cooked onions, cognac and white wine, then finished like French onion soup: shredded, covered in toasted baguette and Gruyère, and run under the broiler. The onions cook on low for up to an hour before the roast goes back in.

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 lb chuck roast
• Olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 large onions, very thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons flour
• ¼ cup cognac
• ¾ cup white wine
• 4 cups beef broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs thyme, plus more to finish
• 1 baguette, sliced and lightly toasted
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Season the roast heavily with salt and pepper. Heat a little oil in a Dutch oven over high heat and sear the roast for five minutes on each side, until a crust forms. Lift it out and turn the heat to medium.
2. Melt the butter in the same pot without wiping it out, and add the onions. Once they are coated in butter, turn the heat to low or medium-low. Cook them slowly, without browning, until they turn golden and soft. This takes up to an hour.
3. Heat the oven to 325°F. Stir the garlic into the onions, then the flour, and turn the heat back to medium until the flour turns golden.
4. Pour in the cognac and white wine and let them absorb. Add the broth slowly, with the bay leaves and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. The sauce thickens in the oven.
5. Return the roast to the pot, cover, and bake for 3 to 3½ hours, until it pulls apart with a fork.
6. Take out the thyme stems and bay leaves and shred the beef into large pieces in the pot. Lay the toasted baguette over the top, cover with Gruyère and broil until the cheese is golden. Finish with fresh thyme.

Chuck roast is a butcher-counter cut: Burbage Meats and Ted's Butcherblock in Charleston, Heights Meat Market in Mount Pleasant and Ogeechee Meat Market in Savannah are among the butchers in the local food directory. goat.sheep.cow., a European cheese shop in Charleston, sells cheese by the piece for the top. The roast cooks in the Smithey 5.5 quart Dutch oven from Rhodes Home & Gift.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, @whiskandwander_auds

Every vegetable in this soup is roasted first, apple included, until it caramelizes at the edges. A pot of onion, carrot and celery softened in butter becomes the base, and half a cup of cream goes in after blending.

Ingredients

For roasting:

• 1 butternut squash, halved
• 1 sweet potato
• 2 carrots
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 apple, halved
• 1 onion
• 1 leek
• 1 head of garlic
• Fresh rosemary, thyme and sage
• Olive oil, salt and pepper
• Tomatoes, optional

For the soup:

• 1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• Fresh and dried herbs
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• ½ cup heavy cream
• Toasted pumpkin seeds, fresh herbs and crispy prosciutto, to serve

Method

1. Toss the roasting vegetables with olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper and roast at 400°F for 40 to 50 minutes, until tender and caramelized.
2. Meanwhile, soften the chopped onion, carrot and celery in the butter with herbs over low heat. A round of parchment laid directly on the vegetables keeps them sweating without browning.
3. Scoop the squash out of its skin, pull off any tough skins from the other vegetables, and add everything to the pot with the broth.
4. Blend until smooth, stir in the cream and season to taste.
5. Serve topped with toasted pumpkin seeds, fresh herbs and crispy prosciutto, if using.

Squash, sweet potatoes, leeks and herbs are all market vegetables. The Charleston Farmers Market in Marion Square runs on Saturdays through November, and Forsyth Farmers' Market in Savannah runs every Saturday of the year. More are in the farmers market directory. A 12-inch olive wood ladle from Social Paper Co. in Mount Pleasant serves it.

Baking

Baked Pumpkin Brie, @ashleylamego

A wheel of Brie wrapped in puff pastry over a layer of fig jam, then tied with four lengths of butcher's twine so the pastry bakes into the ridges of a pumpkin. A cinnamon stick makes the stem and a sage leaf the leaf.

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• 1 wheel of Brie
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fig jam
• 4 pieces of butcher's twine
• 1 egg white
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 sage leaf
• Crackers, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 375°F.
2. Lay the puff pastry flat and spread a generous circle of fig jam in the center, about the size of the Brie.
3. Set the Brie on the jam and fold the pastry up around it, trimming away any extra.
4. Tie the four pieces of twine tightly around the wrapped Brie so they cross at the top and divide it into eighths. Trim the ends.
5. Brush all over with egg white and bake on a lined tray for 25 minutes, then broil for the last 2 minutes.
6. Push in the cinnamon stick for a stem and tuck the sage leaf beside it. Serve with crackers.

The Brie comes from goat.sheep.cow. in Charleston, and it goes to the table on a Landrum Tables cheese board, made in the Lowcountry from reclaimed Southeastern wood and sold at Essentially Charleston, with a set of three cheese knives from Shanty in Mount Pleasant. For a pumpkin breakfast after it, the recipe library has pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Apple Crisp Cheesecake, @lori_ilc

A cinnamon cheesecake on a graham cracker crust, covered edge to edge in sliced Granny Smith apples and an oat streusel, baked over a water bath and chilled overnight. It is served with salted caramel or a scoop of ice cream.

Ingredients

Cinnamon streusel:

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Apples:

• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Graham cracker crust:

• 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Pinch of salt

Cheesecake filling:

• 32 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ⅔ cup sour cream, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

Method

1. Mix the streusel ingredients until clumps form and no dry spots remain, and refrigerate. Toss the apple slices with the brown sugar and cinnamon and refrigerate them too.
2. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a springform pan and line the base with parchment. Mix the crumbs with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, stir in the butter, and press firmly over the base and a little up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, then cool.
3. Turn the oven down to 325°F. Set a roasting pan on the bottom rack and boil a kettle for the water bath.
4. Beat the cream cheese with both sugars on low until smooth. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon on medium, then add the eggs one at a time on low, scraping the bowl after each.
5. Pour the filling over the crust and tap the pan on the counter to release air bubbles. Cover the surface with the apple slices, then cover the apples completely with streusel.
6. Pour the boiling water into the roasting pan and set the cheesecake on the middle rack above it. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the edges are set and the center still wobbles slightly.
7. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside with the door slightly open for an hour. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight before unmolding.

Sunday Sunday in Savannah has a sweet potato cheesecake on its dessert menu.

Apple Puff Pastry Pumpkins, @avelinecooks

Small puff pastry tarts filled with vanilla cream cheese and topped with thin slices of red apple, standing upright and overlapping so each tart bakes into the round ribs of a pumpkin. The red peel stays on for the color.

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• 2 to 3 apples, red-skinned for preference
• 100 g cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 to 2 tablespoons apricot jam or honey, optional

Method

1. Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
2. Roll out the pastry and cut shapes with an apple-shaped cutter. Press a smaller round cutter into the center of each, without cutting through, to mark an inner border.
3. Slice the apples very thinly, keeping the peel on.
4. Pipe the cream cheese inside each inner circle.
5. Stand the apple slices upright on the cream, overlapping, starting in the center and working outward until they form a rounded pumpkin shape.
6. Brush the exposed pastry with beaten egg and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 18 to 22 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden and the apples are tender.
7. Cool slightly and dust with powdered sugar.

Fall Cocktails

Apple Cider Sangria, @the.boozy.ginger

A white sangria made with Sauvignon Blanc and fresh apple cider, with sliced apples, orange wheels and whole cinnamon sticks in the pitcher. One bottle of wine makes a pitcher for a party or Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (750 ml) Sauvignon Blanc, chilled
• 2 cups fresh apple cider
• ¼ cup brandy, or an orange liqueur such as Cointreau
• 1 to 2 medium apples, Honeycrisp or Granny Smith, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 medium navel orange, sliced into wheels
• 2 to 4 whole cinnamon sticks

Method

1. Combine everything in a pitcher and stir.

Asher + Rye in Savannah sells a hand-etched glass pitcher.

Autumn Pear Spritz, @marvelousmixing

An Aperol spritz moved into October with pear juice and brown sugar syrup, garnished with a pear slice, a cinnamon stick and star anise.

Ingredients

• 1½ oz Aperol
• 2 oz pear juice
• ¾ oz brown sugar syrup
• 3 to 4 oz prosecco
• Pear slice, cinnamon stick and star anise, to garnish

Method

1. Add everything to a glass over ice and stir lightly.
2. Garnish with the pear slice, cinnamon stick and star anise.

Celadon Home in Mount Pleasant sells the Bandol fluted wine glass in sets of four.

Pecan Martini, @thethirstygals

Vanilla vodka, RumChata, pecan whiskey and caramel syrup, shaken and strained into a chilled martini glass.

Ingredients

• 2 oz vanilla vodka
• 1 oz RumChata
• 1 oz pecan whiskey
• ½ oz caramel syrup

Method

1. Shake everything with ice.
2. Strain into a chilled martini glass.

Celadon Home sells the Bandol fluted martini glass in sets of four. Pecans to set out beside it: Savannah Cinnamon Pecans from Capital Bee Company, or Nanna's Nuts Praline Pecans, made in Charleston and sold at Essentially Charleston. The recipe library has pecan pralines to make at home, and pecan pie is on the dessert menu at Page's Okra Grill in Mount Pleasant and Little Duck Diner in Savannah.

Pots, Boards and Glasses

5.5 Qt Dutch Oven, Rhodes Home & Gift

Smithey's cast iron Dutch oven, with a polished interior that cooks like enamel and will not chip. Rhodes sells it for pickup at the Charleston shop. The French onion pot roast cooks start to finish in it.

$300 · Dutch oven in the store

Olive Wood Modern Ladle, Social Paper Co.

A 12-inch ladle carved from olive wood, each one slightly different in grain and shape.

$35 · Olive wood ladle in the store

Landrum Custom Cheese Board, Essentially Charleston

Landrum Tables makes its boards from reclaimed Southeastern wood, including trees brought down by Lowcountry hurricanes, river-recovered cypress and heart pine from old Charleston buildings. This one measures 12 by 8 inches.

$50 · Cheese board in the store

Cheese Knives, Set of 3, Shanty

Three 7½-inch cheese knives with gold-finish blades and rattan-wrapped mango wood handles, in a drawstring bag.

$27 · Cheese knives in the store

Hand-Etched Glass Pitcher, Asher + Rye

Blown glass with a botanical pattern etched by hand, from Villa Lua Home.

$80 · Glass pitcher in the store

Bandol Fluted Wine Glass, Set of 4, Celadon Home

Tapered, fluted wine glasses, 9½ inches tall, holding about 20 ounces.

$60 · Wine glasses in the store

Bandol Fluted Martini Glass, Set of 4, Celadon Home

A fluted coupe holding about 8 ounces, for martinis, champagne and cocktails served up.

$60 · Martini glasses in the store

Savannah Cinnamon Pecans, Capital Bee Company

Pecans roasted with sugar and cinnamon, from the Savannah honey shop.

$12 · Cinnamon pecans in the store

Nanna's Nuts Praline Pecans, Essentially Charleston

Roasted pecans in a praline glaze of brown sugar, cream, butter and vanilla, made in Charleston.

$15 · Praline pecans in the store

Recipe List

More kitchen and bar pieces from the same shops are in the Lowcountry Magazine store, and more recipes are in the recipe library.