Pumpkin Praline Custard

I’ve been promising you, all my loyal readers (thank you, by the way), that I’d post this recipe. I mentioned it way back last Fall, saying that I had this low calorie, low fat dessert, perfect for the autumn months. I’m sure I’ve mentioned, I’m a big fan of anything pumpkin. Pumpkin pie is my most favorite pie. But I don’t make it, really, except at Thanksgiving. My will power is about zilch when it comes to pumpkin pie. I have an entire stack of recipes in my archives devoted just to all-things-pumpkin. Pies, cakes, tortes, breads, muffins, cookies, tarts, pudding, etc. But I try to stay away from them as much as possible.

The recipe came from Cooking Light, back in 2001. And the writer/developer raved about the flavor, telling readers it was worth making. I couldn’t agree more. This little number satisfies my yearning for pumpkin pie, but without all the calories, without the crust, and with a lot less fuss. And with very little fat. And it’s easy on top of it.

You’re wondering . . . where’s the praline? I ran out of time, so this time I served the custards with just a little covering of heavy cream (less than a tablespoon each). I make these in custard cups, espresso cups, or ramekins. If you use small cups, rather than ramekins, you’ll be able to serve more.

Whipping this together takes all of about 10 minutes (yes, really), then you bake them in a water bath for about 50 minutes, cool, serve. You whiz up the custard in the blender, to make sure the cinnamon gets distributed (ever noticed how cinnamon kind of floats everywhere it goes, especially liquid?). You definitely want it to disburse in this custard, so do use a hand mixer or a blender. But the ingredients can all fit in the blender bowl and takes but a few seconds to combine. Then you pour it into spray-covered ramekins and bake. I started the tea kettle to boil before I started the custard prep and by the time the water was boiling, I was all ready. But be sure to preheat the oven first – my oven wasn’t even hot when I was ready to put these in. That’s how quick they are to make.

A little bit about nutmeg here. I can’t stress enough, that there is real value (taste value) in using freshly grated nutmeg. Here’s a photo of a nutmeg pod. It’s about ½ inch in diameter, and I’ve had my nutmeg for years and years. I don’t think they go bad as long as they’re still in the whole form. So I bought this little gizmo, a nutmeg grinder, some years ago. It’s nothing fancy, comes apart in a jiffy, and contains the whole pods in a compartment in the top (you can see one pod inside) and the bottom part is the grinder. The flavor is so enhanced with fresh nutmeg. If you like to bake, you’ll find it worthwhile to have one of these grinders. As an aside, I went online and was going to give you a recommendation of a grinder, but having read reviews of several brands, I’m not sure which one I’d buy. They range in price from about $15 - $75. My little plastic one was under $10 when I bought it. Do read the reviews, though, before deciding on any of them. It appears the William Bounds ones get better write-ups.

Cook’s Notes: Make these enough ahead so you can cool and chill them. I serve them at room temp sometimes, and they’re fine, but the recipe indicates chilling time. You can make the praline pecans ahead of time.

Pumpkin Praline Custards
Recipe: From Cooking Light, 2001
Serving Size : 6
CUSTARD:
1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk -- or vanilla soy milk
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg -- freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
PRALINES:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1. Preheat oven to 325°. To prepare custards, combine the first nine ingredients in a large bowl and stir well with a whisk, or combine in a blender. Divide the mixture among six 6-ounce custard cups coated with cooking spray. Place the cups in a 9x13 pan, add hot water to a depth of one inch. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cups from the water bath and cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill.
2. To prepare the praline: combine the sugar and water in a small skillet (nonstick is preferable). Cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes, or until the mixture has turned a golden brown color, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add the chopped pecans and stir to coat them. Then, QUICKLY scrape the mixture out onto a baking sheet that's been coated with cooking spray, spreading out as thinly as possible to cool completely. Break up the pralines into small pieces and use about 1 tablespoon on top of each serving.
Serving Ideas : If you don't have time to make the praline, you could also serve the custard with a thin film of heavy cream.
NOTES : This custard - or almost a pumpkin pie filling - is really, really good. And it's surprisingly very low in fat too. It's hard to believe it has so few fat grams! And the best part is that you can whip this up in such a short time. If you have the pralines on hand (or even candied walnuts would be fine too) it's a snap to make this. If there is any leftover batter, just pour it into another larger dish and bake a little longer than the cups.
Per Serving: 221 Calories; 6g Fat (23.1% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 73mg Cholesterol; 163mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 1 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates.

Printer-friendly recipe.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Souffle

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope you're having a great day - or had a great day, if you're reading this after Turkey day. Its only 10 am and I've been cooking since 7:30. Let us not forget to be thankful for our dinner bounty, and to happy to share it with family.

For today's dinner, I made as much as I could yesterday, but there's still a lot to be done the day of. My daughter is helping a lot, thank goodness. Helpers are so nice to have around! This post, though, was one I wrote up a day or so ago - we're having pumpkin pie today. My very favorite pie in the world. Because we have so many pumpkin pie lovers in our family, we're having 3 pumpkin and one apple, and likely they'll all be gone by the end of the day, or at the latest tomorrow morning.

Probably I've mentioned before that I'm an inveterate recipe collector. Clippings from all the magazines I subscribe to (at the moment those are: Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Cooks Illustrated, Sunset and Southern Living), notes from a restaurant meal, emailed from friends, found on the internet, and now, with food blogs, I have a whole new source of recipes. If I cooked 3 meals a day, with 4-5 recipes per meal, I still wouldn't run out of new recipes for the rest of my life, just of the ones I have in my to-try collection. I'm really trying to be more circumspect about what I clip and print out. But, it's very hard because so many things sound so wonderful.

Because I subscribe to a lot of food blogs through google reader (if you've looked at the list down my right column you'll understand what I'm saying), I have a lot of reading to do. Not only do I like to support the other food bloggers out there by reading what they have to say, but you just never know what you're going to find. After I've been away for a few short days, my google reader box is full. You can imagine that when I finally got around to looking yesterday, after 3 1/2 weeks, it says I had 997 blogs to read. Oh my. That's almost overwhelming. And yet, what if I miss some fantastic recipe? So, I'm trying to read it gradually, maybe 15-20 minutes at a time. I've already printed out 4 recipes and I'm only down to the C's (google gives them to me in alpha order). So, the task ahead of me is huge. Daunting. But I'll keep slogging through it.

So, when I saw the title of this blog posting, I was hooked, since I love all-things-pumpkin. The blogger Sassy Radish, was guest hosting at the Accidental Hedonist, and wrote up a nice list of her favorite Thanksgiving menu items, among them, this dessert. Read her original posting about this recipe here. Its origin is Charles Phan of the Slanted Door in San Francisco, a hugely popular restaurant in the Ferry Building, a place I'd love to visit. You can also find the recipe on Epicurious with the title of Pumpkin Souffle/Bread Pudding.

This isn't pumpkin pie. Naturally, with the main ingredient of bread, it's a different texture. The challah is a soft bread, just slightly sweet. And not something I'd ever purchased before, but figuring it was an important item, I sought it out. Finally found it at Trader Joe's, thank goodness.

Very little sugar is added, surprisingly, to the bread pudding. The pumpkin custard mixed with whipped-up egg whites provides a subtle pumpkin flavor. It's lighter, though, than most bread puddings because of the addition of whipped egg whites. I like that part. With a big dollop of whipped cream on top, yum. If and when I make this again, I think I'll add more spices (just because I can, and I like more of those pumpkin pie type spices anyway) and I'll add more pumpkin. Hopefully the custard will hold with 4 egg yolks. I made a double batch, and because I don't have enough custard cups, I made it in a 9 x 13 pan, which is what Sassy Radish did also. I baked the dish 10 minutes longer because of that. And having made this several days ago, I'll tell you that I think this tastes better after it sits overnight - so this might make a great do-ahead dessert.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Souffle
Recipe: Chef Charles Phan's recipe, via Sassy Radish, via Accidental Hedonist
Servings: 8
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
9 ounces bread -- challah, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
3 1/2 ounces butter -- (7 tablespoons)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Pinch cloves
1 Pinch nutmeg
4 large egg yolks
1 cup pumpkin purée -- at room temperature
2 whole egg whites
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a small saucepan, bring milk and cream to a simmer over low heat. Place challah cubes in bowl. Remove milk mixture from heat and pour half of the liquid over the challah.
3. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and egg yolks, beating well. Add pumpkin purée and the other half of the heated cream and milk.
4. Fold the soaked challah into the pumpkin mixture. Beat the egg whites and sugar until they form stiff peaks and gently fold into the batter. Butter and sugar 8 three-inch ramekins, then divide batter evenly among ramekins. Bake for 25 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. Baked desserts can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, then heated in the oven wrapped in foil or microwaved until warm.
Per Serving: 363 Calories; 26g Fat (63.3% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 179mg Cholesterol; 454mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 5 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a PDF recipe, click title at top.

A Pumpkin Cake for a birthday

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my DH's friends, Wayne. The "boys" came to our house for Bible study, so DH had asked me to make something special for Wayne. Not a coffee cake, like usual, since they meet at 7:00 am every Thursday. He wanted something that would stand in for a traditional birthday cake.

It just so happened that I used a gift certificate I had from Williams-Sonoma a week or so ago and ordered a pumpkin cake mold. It's just so darned CUTE! The mold comes with a recipe. Good thing, since I wasn't sure what volume of cake would fill the mold to the correct height.

If you haven't already noticed, I don't go in for the frou-frou desserts. I rarely make a layer cake or frosting, etc. 9x13 pans are usually just fine for me. I'm more into the taste rather than the appearance. Some bakers prefer the latter. Go for it, I say. So it's a bit unusual for me to do something like this cake mold. But it wasn't all that hard. The cake recipe was wonderful, I must say. Lots of fragrant fall spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, etc. And very moist, which I like. The standout in this recipe is the crystallized ginger. I'm a fan of ginger, period. But chrystallized just adds a wonderful zing to baked goods. There was a chunk of it left on the cake plate this morning. It went immediately into my mouth. Yum.

Certainly this mold will be a seasonal item for William-Sonoma, so if you're interested you might want to check it out soon. It's only available for internet ordering here. $32.00 plus shipping, of course. Here's what the mold looks like (right). It's hard metal, in case you thought it was silicone.

Once the cakes are baked, they sit in the molds for 15 minutes, then you remove them to cool for awhile. Here's a photo of the two halves. What's interesting is you slice off the tops (because they're rounded) so the two halves both have a flat side. Then you flop them together and voila, you have a standing pumpkin. I made a frosting (cream cheese type) and mounded it on the top half, and put some in the middle (between the two halves) also to hold the two halves together.

Pumpkin Cake

Recipe: (Willliams-Sonoma)
Servings: 14
CAKE:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg -- freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar -- packed
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
2/3 cup walnuts -- toasted, chopped
1/2 cup crystallized ginger -- diced
FROSTING:
8 ounces cream cheese -- room temperature
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pumpkin puree -- (optional)
Food coloring, if desired
1. Have all ingredients at room temperature.
2. Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 325. Generously grease and flour the Williams-Sonoma pumpkin pan (or two bread pans). Tap out any excess flour.
3. Over a sheet of waxed paper sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer 2-3 times to scrape down the sides. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition until just incorporated, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides. Add the pumpkin puree and beat until incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the walnuts and candied ginger until incorporated.
6. Divide the batter between the wells of the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center of one cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. (If using bread pans, test the pans at about 45-50 minutes.) Transfer the pan(s) to a wire rack and let the cake halves cool upright in the pan for 15 minutes.
7. Gently tap the pan on a work surface to loosen the cake halves. Invert the pans onto a wire rack and lift off the pan. Let the cake halves cool completely before decorating.
8. Frosting: in the bowl of an electric mixer beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add the butter and beat until combined, 1-2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Divide the frosting into two bowls and add the pumpkin puree to one of them.
9. Using a sharp, serrated bread knife, gently slice off the rounded tops (about 1/4 inch) of each cake half, so you have a completely flat side. Spread the pumpkin frosting on one half and gently place the top on the bottom cake, lining up the ribs as best you can. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Frost the top of the pumpkin with the cream cheese frosting (or use it with food coloring to make fancy cut-outs. pumpkin faces or leaves and tendrils). Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 510 Calories; 26g Fat (44.2% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 66g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 105mg Cholesterol; 386mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 1/2 Fat; 3 Other Carbohydrates. To view a PDF Recipe, click title at top.