Recipe Road Test: Pumpkin pots de creme

With Thanksgiving coming up this week in the US (the Canadians had it last month), there’s going to be a whole lot of pumpkin pie eating going on. Pumpkin as a dessert is not unheard of outside North America but it’s not common. Pumpkin pie is occasionally found in Australia and Britain but it’s a bit of a novelty and its appearance inevitably sparks a conversation about how this is a really popular dish in America. Apple pie can be found all over – by rights the phrase should be “as American as pumpkin pie”.

I’m totally a fan of pumpkin desserts. After cooking and mashing my pumpkin from scratch to make Antony Worrall Thompson’s deliciously spiced pumpkin pie the other week, I’m also a fan of tinned pumpkin. In the States you can buy pumpkin pie mix in a can but as far as I’m concerned that’s just gross – I’m talking about tinned pumpkin with nothing added. I found some in Whole Foods – naturally, since it’s an American owned store, and decided to buy a couple of cans, even though they were a whopping £1.60 each.

As I’ve mentioned previously, food blog Cafe Lynnylu recently posted a very tempting recipe for pumpkin pots de creme with caramel whipped cream. I decided to give it a go and serve it at my engagement and housewarming party. (The full menu also included pork, apple and cider sausages from the Ginger Pig served with tomato sauce (ketchup) and crusty sourdough bread, homemade oven-baked wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, and a cheese platter from Neal’s Yard Dairy).

The Recipe
I won’t reproduce the recipe here since it is already online at Cafe Lynnylu. I doubled the quantities to cater for the party.

My Road Test
A note on ingredients: I did not have chipotle chilli powder so I used a pinch of paprika instead. When I was cooking the leftover mix, I tried to pep it up further and added ground ginger, cloves and all spice.

I didn’t have granulated sugar so I substituted white sugar. I only had half the amount of white sugar needed, so I used mostly brown sugar.

I stirred in dulce de leche into the whipped cream instead of caramel.

Method: The instructions were clear. My oven uses gas marks so I referred to Mr Google to find out that 350F equates to Gas Mark 4. I had a few different sizes of ramekin and also baked a few in small espresso cups.

Result: The pumpkin pots were a big hit! However, I think it depends how much of a sweet tooth you are. If you are like me and enjoy slightly tart flavours – lemon, rhubarb, goosberry etc – then you might find it a bit too sweet and not spicy enough.

Verdict
I really like the idea of a pumpkin dessert without pastry. I don’t always have the time to make pastry from scratch, especially if it needs blind baking, and I find shop-bought pastries a bit disappointing, let alone the scary ingredient lists on some of them. Also, pastry is fattening and not the best part of the dessert – it’s the filling that everyone wants.

I’m inclined to experiment with using less sugar and more spices. I preferred the pumpkin mix in the Antony Worrall Thompson pie recipe so I might base a future version of this recipe on that. However, I’m aware of the fact that I didn’t use chipotle chilli powder, which may be a crucial addition. If I can get hold of that then I might try this again using the Cafe Lynnylu recipe.

Note
I made this dessert at night and didn’t get photographs. Then when I cooked the leftover mix, it was also at night. This time I did take a photograph but it was really bad – the version with the flash was washed out and the version without the flash was dark and blurry. I would really rather not subject you to the pic when there are such beautifully styled pics on Cafe Lynnylu.