Pumpkin Pudding with maple pecans

A variety of Squash are abundant in the fall. Butternut, buttercup, blue hubbard, red kuri, kabocha, sugar, cheese, sweet dumpling, the list goes on. One of my favorite things to do on a chilly autumn day is bake a squash in my oven. I turn my oven onto 350, wash my squash of choice, put it on a large baking/roasting pan and pop it into the oven – whole. Check it after about an hour or until the squash is soft.  Then I take it out wait for it to cool and I easily peel the skin away, scoop out the delicious flesh, discarding the seeds (some folks save the seeds, wash then, dry them and toast them, by all means go for it if you got the patience) and now, with all this yummy fresh baked squash you are ready to make some fall goodness. If you want to make this recipe into a pie, by all means do. Just pour the pudding into a unbaked pie crust and follow the same baking instructions below. Also if you have some baked squash left over you can make a soup or add it to a stew…

Pudding

3 cups cooked squash

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup agave

½ cup unsweetened soy milk, coconut, cow or homemade almond milk

¾ tsp ground cinnamon

¾ tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (i never use the pre-ground nutmeg. buy the whole nutmeg and a nice little grater and you just made your dish taste that much better!!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp sea salt

2 TB arrowroot powder

1 tsp agar powder (if you can only find agar flakes you have to dissolve 4 1/2 tsp agar flakes in a pot over medium heat with the milk of your choice, stirring until dissolved, about 10 minutes. You will know they are dissolved when you don't see any flakes on the back of your stirring spoon.)

* use can omit the arrowroot and agar altogether and add 1 egg and 1 egg yoke instead.

Pecans

1 ½ cup pecan halves, coarsely chopped

1 Tb molasses

¼ cup dark maple syrup

1 tsp arrowroot powder

Toss everything in bowl. Mix and set aside.

Preheat oven 350.

Add everything except arrowroot and agar to food processor. Process until smooth. Taste. Add more agave if necessary. Then add arrowroot and agar. Mix until combine. Pour into, lightly buttered or coconut buttered, 9 inch pie dish (or pie crust if using). Make sure you put the pie dish on baking sheet so nothing drips in the oven. Cover with parchment paper then foil. Bake for about 50 minutes. Be-careful when taking off the parchment paper, it the pudding may stick too it and be a little gooey. 

Remove from oven and remove parchment paper. Evenly distribute pecan mixture over the top. Put bake into oven and bake, uncovered, for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool a couple of hours before serving.