Easy Pumpkin Dessert with Maple Whipped Cream

This is something fairly easy I made in the fall, I wanted to write a little bit about if remember it for future use.  This was a very tasty pumpkin dessert I made one day after dinner.  I began by sauteeing chunks of pumpkin in butter with cinnamon, ginger, chile ancho, brown sugar and some maple syrup.  I placed this combination in the oven for about 20 or so minutes, basically until the pumpkin softened.



After removing from the oven I simply mashed the contents of the pan and served in a bowl.  Using a stick blender I mixed heavy cream, maple syrup and cinnamon to make a maple whipped cream to put on top. I added a few walnuts for crunch and it was ready to go.  A very tasty fall dessert. 



pumpkin bread pudding

Pumpkin is one of my favorite things about fall.  It is a flavor I look forward to every year.  I picked up a sugar pumpkin at the store, not really knowing what I wanted to do with it.  Normally I would roast it and leave it at that, but I decided to take roasted pumpkin and incorporate it into a bread pudding.

To begin I cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces to roast in the oven. I placed the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and covered with melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger paste.  I set this to roast in the oven until the pumpkin fell apart easily with a fork.

I removed the skin from the pumpkin and I placed the cooked pieces in a blender with eggs, half and half, sugar and cinnamon.  I blended this combination until smooth and set aside while I cut my bread.  I used a day old country style sourdough bread.  Any day old crusty bread works to soak up all the liquid from the pumpkin mixture.  I cut the bread into large cubes and placed them in a deep pan.  I covered the bread with the pumpkin mixture and let this soak in for 10 minutes.

The pudding was browned on the top and the inside of the pudding was tender, but not mushy.

The flavor of pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger really stood out making this a perfect fall dessert.