All Things Pumpkin

Christmas may have come and gone, and New Year’s too, but I’m just now getting around to posting some of the tasty things I made for Thanksgiving this year.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since we held that massive Thanksgiving on the balcony of our small Xela apartment, but time came along once more for pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce and all sorts of fall goodies.

This was the first time in several years that I was celebrating again with family outside of Boston.  Normally they do most of the cooking (including fabulous deserts prepared by my former-professional-baker cousin) but this year when I offered to help, I was told bringing a dessert would be much appreciated.  Perhaps they were just amusing me, or maybe we are an extended family with one intense sweet tooth, because I turned out to be one of four people making desserts!  Luckily, we all made something a little different.  My dessert making became an homage to all things pumpkin.  I took a lot of pumpkins and winter squash home from the farm, roasted them together and ended up with a beautiful, deep orange puree to use in a variety of dishes.  I made pumpkin soup, I made a baked pumpkin mash, and then I made a classic pumpkin pie and a pumpkin bread pudding.  I felt obligated to make something traditional, and I always love pumpkin pie.  I’m not going to include a recipe here, because I imagine most people have their favorite (including the one on the back of the can of pumpkin, which is pretty damn good).  I will include a bit more about the bread pudding, a very adaptable recipe, and a great new addition to my fall dessert repertoire.

The bread pudding really just came about as a way to deal with a large quantity of somewhat disappointing homemade panettone (remember that earlier post about the Bread Baker’s Apprentice?  Turns out it isn’t quite as no-fail as I thought).  It wasn’t the flavor of the panettone that was the problem, it was it’s overly dense texture.  You could substitute any fairly rich bread in this recipe (challah, brioche etc.) but if the bread doesn’t have any dried fruit in it, you’ll want to add a few handfuls of your favorite mixed dried fruits, diced finely.

The bread is cut into small cubes, and then mixed with a pumpkin custard very similar to pumpkin pie filling.

Sliced panettone and pumpkin custard

I decided to make bread pudding bites by baking the pudding in mini-muffin tins.  You could easily make a larger pudding in a bigger baking dish.  You’ll need to adjust the cooking time up to ensure that the filling sets.  Before the bread pudding goes in the oven, I topped it with some candied walnuts.  The walnuts are cooked in honey until the honey begins to caramelize and then finished quickly in the oven, for a crisp, burnt sugar coating. These add some nice texture to the bread pudding, but could easily be omitted or substituted with plain, toasted walnuts.

The finished bread pudding and candied walnuts

Ingredients

• 5 cups bread, cubed
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup roasted pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup mixed dried fruit (if not using a fruited bread)
• 1/2 cup candied walnuts

Directions:

Combine eggs, milk, sugar, salt and spices and mix well.  Add bread.  Add dried fruit if using.  Let sit 30 minutes.  Spoon into greased muffin tins.  Sprinkle the tops with walnuts.  Bake in a 375 oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling has set and the tops are golden brown.  Best served warm, with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.