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Rich Pumpkin Custard is one of the great pleasures of the Fall. I love being able to pack lots of good nutrition into a dish, especially one my kids like, and my kids really enjoy custard. It’s equally good for breakfast or dessert.
This pumpkin custard has a surprise in it. I used dehydrated pumpkin and I rehydrated it using coconut cream, making this dessert extra-rich. You can learn how to roast, puree and dehydrate pumpkin to make pumpkin powder and much more in our Real Food Holidays series. For the Harvest, we’re teaching a variety of storage methods and recipes for a variety of in-season foods.
Coconut cream is one of my favorite foods, it’s so versatile and easy to use in the place of dairy, with lots of good fat to keep you full and going all morning. If you do not have dehydrated pumpkin powder to work with, use 1 cup of coconut cream and 1 cup of pumpkin puree instead. You will still get a good custard, it just won’t be as rich.
If you want this to have a lighter texture than a traditional custard, whipping air into it using the blender works. That’s what I did to this batch to make it lighter. If you like a traditional custard, only pulse the blender until just combined and uniform.
If you like pumpkin, there are more recipes listed below, including my favorite, Crock-Pot Pumpkin Pudding, and some pumpkin donuts. You can view an index of all of our recipes here.
Pumpkin Custard
From CookingTF.com
Serves 4
2 cups coconut cream, dairy milk, dairy cream or a combination*
1/4 cup dehydrated, powdered pumpkin*
2 eggs
4-6 Tbs coconut palm sugar
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt
Dash Concentrace, optional
Dash ginger
Dash nutmeg
Dash allspice
Dash cloves
In a saucepan, heat the coconut cream to a full, rolling boil. Whisk in the powdered pumpkin thoroughly, and allow to sit for ten minutes, whisking occasionally. Cool completely.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Set a kitchen towel into a 9×13 pan. Grease four ramekins and place into the 9×13 pan, on top of the towel and set aside. Place a pot onto boil with 2 quarts of water.
Place the pumpkin mixture and the remaining ingredients into a blender and blend briefly until smooth and uniform. Pour into the four ramekins, equally.
When the water comes to a rolling boil, move the 9×13 pan holding the ramekins to the oven, and pour the boiling water around the ramekins, into the bottom of the 9×13 pan. Be careful, water getting into the custard won’t be tasty. Gently slide them into the center of the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center of the custard comes out clean.
*Note: If you don’t have dehydrated pumpkin, you can use 1 cup of coconut cream and 1 cup of pumpkin puree instead.
This post is shared at Creative Juices, Simple Lives, and GAPS Friendly Friday.
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Hi Kerry-Ann,
I think there may be another way to get your rich custard with regular pumpkin puree. If you have “creamed coconut” (sold in small boxes at ethnic grocery stores), you could use that as it can be mixed with water to create coconut cream. So the water content of the pumpkin puree would be creating the coconut cream from the creamed coconut. It might be a bit tricky to figure out exactly how much to use but seems doable.
Does the Concentrace enhance the flavour at all? I would rather just drink some extra in my water (I like the taste in water, up to 20 drops/glass) than risk ruining the flavour of this dish.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Mike, you don’t taste the concentrace at all. Just a dash, is low enough that no one notices it. You can easily get up to 10 drops in things with a good texture or stronger flavor, like pumpkin, without a notice. That’s per serving, not for the whole dish. So I’m pretty comfortable just putting a dash into the whole thing.
I have never considered dehydrating pumpkin and turning it into a powder. Brilliant! I can’t wait to check out more suggestions on preserving other in-season foods. Thanks!
damn….guess i may not be the first to come up with pumpkin powder! 😉