Pumpkin Cheese Layer Dessert

For Thanksgiving this year, I didn't want to make pie nor bake pumpkin cheesecake. It's just too much trouble preparing crust, etc. No bake was the only way to go. I used the mashed sweet baby pumpkin I had in the freezer to shorten the prep. Canned pumpkin is also good for this recipe.

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Pumpkin Bread

It's Autumn and pumpkin season. I've used pumpkin puree in many different ways but not in a yeasted bread loaf. It has been a long while since I baked bread but the currently airing Korean Drama, My Golden Life, sort of enticed me to bake a loaf or two. One of the main characters is working in a bakeshop that bakes loaves with pumpkin both in the dough and filling.

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Pumpkin Brioche

I'm still in my pumpkin love period and added puree into a brioche dough. To half of the dough I added pumpkin seeds and shaped into a medium size "brioche a tete" and a few teeny tiny ones. I divided the other half into eight portions and filled them with sweetened and pie spiced pumpkin puree. I love them both. They're fragrant and slightly sweet; very autumn-y.

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Pumpkin Waffles

I've expanded my use of pumpkin and squash this season. I already made [and demolished] pumpkin pastillas de leche (milk candies) and also added mashed cooked pumpkin to yeast waffles. These waffles are really delicious specially with heavy cream sweetened with maple syrup and sprinkled with pumpkin seed brittle. I love pumpkins!

Pumpkin Yeast Waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups mashed pumpkin
½ tablespoon instant yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 cup water
6 tablespoons light olive or grapeseed oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• In a large bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients. Mix in the rest of ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days. Preheat waffle maker and bake according to manufacturer's directions.

Maple Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

¼ cup pure maple syrup

• Beat together syrup and cream until thick but still pourable. Transfer into a squirt bottle if desired.

Pumpkin Seed Brittle

¼ cup sugar

½ cup toasted pumpkin seeds

• Cook sugar over medium heat in a skillet until caramelized and golden in color. Quickly stir in toasted seeds and transfer in one layer into a buttered piece of aluminum foil. Let cool completely; break into small pieces.

Pumpkin And Squash Recipes For Thanksgiving

Here are a few pumpkin and squash recipe suggestions for Turkey Day, 3 recipes can be prepared a day ahead and the soufflé an hour before dinner starts.

I have been cooking several kinds of squash these past 3 weeks and whenever I see unfamiliar ones at the farmer's market I couldn't resist buying them. The Hubbard squash which looks like a very large (about 5 pounds) pregnant and pockmarked zucchini has a very mild sweetish flavor and light yellow color. I like that its skin is soft and edible just like zucchini and kabocha. And when I saw the teeny tiny less than half a pound Sweet Dumpling squash I knew I wanted to make it into, what else, dumplings! It is also very mild in taste and color and the recipe I found online is just perfect in its simplicity.

tiny Sweet Dumpling squash and Sugar pumpkin

the quite large Hubbard squash

Sugar Pumpkin Soufflé recipe adapted from here
Kabocha Cupcakes recipe adapted from here
Sweet Dumpling Dumplings recipe adapted from here
Baked Hubbard Squash
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
20 ounces peeled and thinly sliced Hubbard squash
salt and pepper to taste
grated nutmeg
1½ cups heavy cream
2 medium tart apples, cored, peeled and thinly sliced
3 ounces goat cheese, diced

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Rub casserole dish with 1 T butter. Place dish on a baking sheet. Cover bottom of dish with a layer of squash, season with salt and pepper and a dash of nutmeg. Repeat with remaining squash and seasoning. Pour heavy cream over all.
• Bake 30 minutes, remove from oven. Press squash/cream mixture down using heat proof spatula, return to the oven and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
• Toss apples with the oil. Cover top of squash with a single layer of apple slices, overlapping slightly, pressing apples gently into cream mixture with a spatula.
• Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with cheese. Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is slightly browned.

Take your pick, they're all delicious, I promise you!:-)