pumpkin Archives - Sugar et al

Pumpkin Pots de Creme

3|11|2024

Gooey, creamy, rich, spicy and simply delicious, these pumpkin pots de creme are an easy dessert that can be made ahead for a crowd or even for a weekend indulgence. You could say, they are like digging into a divine pumpkin mousse.

Funny, but its’s spring in the southern hemisphere. There are a variety of fruits to choose from, yet inspired by pumpkin recipes all over my socials, I made not one but two pumpkin desserts on the same day. We don’t get store bought pumpkin puree in Australia so when I made a huge batch of puree, I wanted to put it to good use. Besides, pumpkin pots de creme is made using egg yolks for the rich texture. The egg whites were perfect to make pumpkin financiers/friands. I’ll share the recipe next.

I decorated the pumpkin pots de creme by melting and coloring white chocolate into leaf molds for the autumn feels. Feel free to serve with candied pecans, grated dark chocolate or even crushed honeycomb.

If you love pumpkin desserts, don’t forget to check out this Pumpkin Creme Caramel and this Pumpkin Cake.

Pumpkin Pots de Creme
Makes 5-6 depending on the size of your cup

1/2 cup milk
11/2 cup heavy/thickened cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup home made (or store bought) pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
white chocolate leaves, to decorate

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C ( 140 degrees for fan-forced ovens) .Combine cream and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until hot (do not allow to boil). Remove saucepan from heat.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl until well combined. Add the pumpkin puree and spices and mix till blended. Pour the warm cream mixture over the egg yolk mixture, little at a time whisking constantly until smooth. Take care not to add the entire cream to the eggs together as it can overcook the eggs resulting in scrambled eggs.

Divide the custard into five or 6 lightly-greased, ramekins or ovenproof cups. Place in a deep baking tray. Pour boiling water into baking tray until halfway up sides of ramekins.

Bake custards, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes or until just set (while the centers are slightly jiggly when shaken). Remove from the oven and take the ramekins out of the water bath. Leave to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until set.

Pumpkin Creme Caramel

2|11|2018

Pumpkin Creme Caramel is the perfect sweet-spicy dessert that is so easy to make. Gluten free, creamy and delicious.

You did it guys! You truly, deeply inspired me to create a dessert with pumpkin, right in the middle of a beautiful Aussie Spring-Summer. I mean, we have mangoes and peaches and blueberries to choose from. No-one is looking at pumpkin (or not). Well, someone is! My feed on Instagram and Pinterest has nothing else but beautifully curated pumpkin soups and pumpkin pies. I just ended up feeling inspired, even though there is no hope of canned of pumpkin puree here. So I made a large batch and stocked up my freezer for the base of a few pumpkin treats starting with this Pumpkin Creme Caramel. And well, we all have to agree, pumpkin is delicious.

Since, the scene is very different on our side as compared to the Fall vibes in the Northern hemisphere, my pictures would look very different and I’m totally fine with that. I didn’t want to go out there and create a Autumn-ish ambience in my photos when the truth is that great food can be enjoyed in any season, in any part of the world. Especially since this Pumpkin Creme Caramel is gluten-free and is really easy to make.

I love the texture of a Creme Caramel. It’s light but creamy and silky and can make such neat slices. To add some crunch, I topped them with cinnamon roasted walnuts that very easy to make as well. The most challenging thing about this dessert for me is the wait time to eat it. If you are planning to make it for a special occasion or event, I would recommend that you make it a day in advance.
Do you ever crave non-seasonal food? What non-seasonal food are you craving today?

Pumpkin Creme Caramel
Makes a 8 inch round dessert serving 6-8

1/2 cup castor sugar
2 tbsp water
4 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (home-made or store bought)
1/2 tsp powdered nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1 can condensed milk (395 g)
1 can half and half (use the same can to mix equal parts of milk and pouring/single cream)

Cinnamon roasted Walnuts
1 egg white
1/4 castor sugar
2 cups walnut halves
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Lightly grease an 8 inch round cake pan.

Make the caramel : Place castor sugar in a medium saucepan with 2 tablespoons water. Stir over low heat, without boiling, until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat slightly and bring to the boil. Cook, without stirring, for about 7 mins, or until mixture is a deep golden-caramel colour. Use a wet pastry brush to brush away any crystals from the side of the saucepan. Quickly pour the caramel into the prepared cake pan. (Be careful as this mixture is really hot). Stand the cake pan in a baking dish.

Place the eggs, pumpkin puree, spices, condensed milk and half and half together in a mixing bowl. Using a blender or in a food processor blend everything together till you have a smooth consistency. Pour into the round pan over the caramel. Add boiling water to the baking dish so it comes halfway up the sides of the creme caramel. Carefully place the baking dish with the cake pan into the preheated oven.

Bake for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes or until the mixture seems set but is slightly wobbly in the centre. Remove from oven and the cake pan from the baking dish. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled to room temperature, place in the fridge to set (approx 4 hours, preferably overnight). When ready to serve, turn the Creme Caramel onto a serving plate (a lot of liquid will also pour out which is delicious). Top with cinnamon roasted walnuts. Enjoy!

To make the Cinnamon roasted walnuts : Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Beat egg whites lightly. Add walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Toss to coat evenly.
Pour on to the prepared baking tray and spread in a single layer. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until caramelized and golden.

Raspberry and Pumpkin Mini Cakes

13|07|2017

Autumn came and turned into winter and winter is half-way through. I realized that I haven’t made any pumpkin desserts this year. Last Autumn, I discovered the deliciousness called pumpkin in sweeter recipes and had begun to acknowledge its hype around colder months in the Northern Hemisphere. I really wish we had access to pumpkin puree in Australia. Perhaps that is one of the reasons pumpkin cakes are not so popular here. Making the puree took me longer than creating a dessert with it. Well, I am sorted for now, having made a big batch of butternut squash puree yesterday. Gives me a solid reason to take out some every other day and make a pumpkin something.

These easy peasy pumpkin mini cakes have nothing complicated or extravagant about them. Just mix and bake. The raspberries were a last minute addition since I was slightly unsure how the pumpkin alone would taste. (Oh goodness, it’s been a year since I tasted pumpkin). Logically speaking, chocolate can save any disaster but berries come a close second. So instead of chocolate chips, I threw in a few raspberries.
The next few days hopefully you will see a bit more of me on the blog. I have a huge pending list of recipes to share that I can easily turn into a cookbook:-) School holidays will be over and I am planning to spend more time documenting my kitchen experiments rather than posting photos on Instagram which has become quite the bad habit for me. Anyone else, doing the same thing?

Have a great week everyone and catch you soon!

Raspberry and Pumpkin Mini Cakes
Yields 12 mini cakes

11/2 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/2 tsp powdered nutmeg
90 g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2/3 cup warm milk
1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen, slightly crushed with a spoon.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a mini bundt pan well (I use cooking spray instead of butter for bundt pans).

In a mixing bowl mix the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda and spices.) In a different mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and milk. Add the flour mixture and mix till just combined. Fold in the raspberries.

Spoon into prepared pan till hall full. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven. Leave aside for 5 minutes. Loosen gently with a blunt knife and turn onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Caramel Pumpkin Pots De Creme

21|07|2016

July is turning out to be such a crazy month. Many things happening at the same time. The boys had winter holidays and that meant that I kept work to a minimum. But when do things go to plan? Do they work for you? I always tell myself that it’s me…I have to be more in control. And I set deadlines. I stick to them to the best of my ability. But from somewhere, something else will pop up. The irony is that, the ‘something else-s’ are things I love to do. So there’s so choice really. Being a Mum is so great, being able to do what I love is equally great! But there is no balance. I want to be perfect in both my roles but that is close to impossible in my situation. So it’s a struggle but there is some satisfaction and joy at the end of the day. At least, the fact that I am able to work from my own home is comforting. I am there for my children on most afternoons and I am able to help them with homework is great. They are fortunate to be taking lunch from home. So yes, I think I am still luckier than many others. Anyway, don’t bother with my ranting. I think documenting it here is making me feel less overwhelmed.

So we are halfway into winter! Our winters are different from the rest of the world. It’s sunny on some days, rainy on others. There are trees with no leaves, trees with red, yellow leaves and there are trees which are bright green. We have a bit of everything. Pumpkin is my latest favourite thing to add to desserts and after I ate this, I felt that even non-pumpkin lovers would find it delicious. Brown sugar is a magical ingredient. Even though it is regarded as ‘sugar’, it actually is a lovely flavouring agent. It lends a butterscotch or caramel sort of taste to baked goods. Once again I added the chocolate coated honeycomb to the pumpkin pots. If you remember it was on my cake in the last post. It is such a wonderful addition to spiced up desserts. Be prepared to see it often in my upcoming posts:-)

To those of you who follow this blog, I mentioned to you about some good news in a past post. Well, news doubled up and now I have more news. Let’s start with my work last year for Spoonful Mag. I created a bunch of recipes for them alongside a gathering that was about a girlfriends lunch get-together. I chose that theme because you know I love pretty food. I had all the opportunity to style them with vibrant colours, flowers and very girl-y flavours. I loved working with them as they were extremely passionate like me. In this big, wide world, isn’t it amazing that you run into people who you click with instantly? I am very excited to be working on their forthcoming issues as well. The Summer issue is out now! The other news is that I was invited to design apparel for a gorgeous brand using my own art, that is desserts. How crazy does that sound? I found it weird in the beginning, but I assure you it is coming together well. Can’t wait to share my online shop with you! 2 days ago something incredible happened as well. I got to meet one of my food heroes at an event hosted by Bulla Family Dairy, a major dairy company in Australia. Imagine my shock when I realized my seat was next to Kirsten Tibballs, one of the best pastry chefs in the world. Oh my God! She had created an exceptionally beautiful and delicious dessert for the occasion (I shared it on Instagram). I have to admit I was a bit star struck at the start and didn’t know what to say to her but she was such a sweet woman.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I love that Spring is not far away in Australia.

Caramel Pumpkin Pots De Creme
Serves 5-6

1/2 cup milk
11/2 cup heavy/thickened cream
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup home made (or store bought) pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Crushed honeycomb, to serve

Divide the custard into five or 6 lightly-greased, ramekins or ovenproof cups. Place in a deep baking tray. Pour boiling water into baking tray until halfway up sides of ramekins.

Bake custards, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until just set (while the centers are slightly jiggly when shaken). Remove from the oven and take the ramekins out of the water bath. Leave to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve with crushed honeycomb.