The Gardener Shares His Family Recipe for Pumpkin Souffle'

I married a man who loves to cook - (sigh~~~)





The Gardener has agreed to share his cherished family recipe for what we now call "pumpkin souffle" with all of my blogging friends.
The first time he made this for me - I thought I had died and gone to heaven. He uses fresh pumpkin or butternut squash - (either one works great - and the taste is the same). We eat this with our meal as one of the side dishes - but in truth - we then ALSO eat more and call it dessert! (the day we took these photos our entire house smelled fabulous with the aroma of the baking - after we took the photos - we ate almost the whole thing for our supper!)
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The Gardener is taking it from here for the rest of this post~~
(so show him some blogging love!)




This started out as a recipe for ‘Sweet Potato Pie’, probably my mother’s but I really don’t remember. I always hated to throw away all those Halloween Pumpkins so I tried this and we all loved it… Sort of a veggie/sort of a dessert. Not for the faint of heart if you are on a low-fat, low-carb diet - but every now and then, why not!

STUFF YOU NEED………………..

Dry: 2 Cups sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Baking powder

Liquid: 4 Large eggs
1 Cup evaporated, canned milk (NOT condensed -- evaporated)
1 ½ tablespoons Vanilla

6 Cups of cooked Fresh Pumpkin or Butternut Squash

1 stick margarine or butter

Set aside for topping: Ground cinnamon, additional sugar, additional margarine



(The sign of a well loved recipe~~)

Prepare the pumpkin /squash

I prepare the pumpkin in various ways depending on availability AND sometimes I use butternut squash or Kershaw, or any other orange, winter-type squash. If it is fresh then cut it into convenient sizes (halves for the butternut) and microwave covered until the skin can be easily pierced and the flesh scooped out easily.

Today I used frozen chunks of a very large butternut that I had cut and peeled earlier. I had frozen it without cooking. Microwaved those chunks until it was easy to smash and then cooled until it was easy to handle.

NOTE that it will not be a puree but will still be a little stringy. BOTTOM LINE: cook it anyway you like including boiling in a water bath or cooking and smashing before freezing it, as long as you drain it very well and smash it up into a fairly uniform, slightly stringy texture. Puree might be OK but I think the texture would not be as nice. If you try it, let me know…

Prepare pumpkin (as described above) and mix the warm pumpkin with a stick of cut-up margarine until margarine melts.

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Combine all the dry ingredients and mix together well.
Beat eggs lightly then combine all liquid with the eggs and whisk until well mixed.
Add dry ingredients to mixed liquids while whisking until this combination is well mixed.

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Then add the prepared pumpkin and whisk until all the ingredients are well mixed. Pour into oven-safe baking dish(es) filling approximately ¾ full.

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Dot surface with pats of margarine to taste~~

Sprinkle top with additional sugar and cinnamon to taste.

Bake for 50 minutes - and using a straw to check in the center - the straw should come out clean.

STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW………………………..

No I didn’t forget the spices that you might expect to go with pumpkin. Although they might make a nice variation - only vanilla and the cinnamon for the topping is used for this recipe.

The amount of pumpkin is not critical. More makes a denser texture, less a little more custard-like texture. I personally like a bit more. When you are mixing it if you see any large chunks that didn’t smash up, just crush them with the mixing spoon -- or not. They cook up OK either way.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of the evaporated milk. That works really well, but I never knew what to do with the remaining 1/2 cup. Answer: Just add it to the mix if you don’t have any other use for it.

I like a bit more vanilla so I usually use 2 tablespoons plus whatever I spill while measuring.

This makes a LOT, so you might want to halve the recipe if you have a small group or you can divide the full recipe into separate baking containers and make two or more smaller portions.

In the deep dish we used today, 50 minutes is just a starting point and usually is about half the time needed. Depends on how deep your baking dish is and other things. If the squash is really dry/drained and you don’t use the extra milk, it might be done then, but usually it is not for me unless I divide it into a shallow dish or into smaller baking dishes for sharing.

Just add more baking time in 20-minute intervals until it is no longer bubbling out the sides and then allow about 10-minutes more. A straw should come out clean from the middle. Sometimes it takes two hours if you are baking it in one deep dish. Not to worry it will just make the house smell wonderful while it is cooking! Also if it is a little moist it still tastes great just not as firm when you dish it out. Today’s dish took about two hours because of the extra milk and deep dish.

This is a recipe that is not really critical about exact amount of ingredients or cooking time and after Halloween, large pumpkins are almost free (50cents at Wal-Mart last week!)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do…

(OK - I'm back. Stole the post back from the Gardener~~~)

If anyone has any questions - just send me an email - I will make sure it gets to the Gardener and HE will answer ALL emails personally. (my email address is found on the sidebar of the blog).

This is truly one of our most beloved family recipes. When we have Thanksgiving dinner with our families - this is always our contribution to the dinner - it is expected - they would not let us walk in the door without it!

From our house to yours~~ Happy Thanksgiving!

Vicki (and the Gardener)