So, I had a pie pumpkin that I needed to use up and decided to clean it, roast the seeds, and cook a bread pudding inside it.
With a nice hot oven after I was done, I thought I’d put together some blue cheese cheesecake-style custard and bake it into a tart with some leftover mushrooms.
So, I had a pie pumpkin that I needed to use up and decided to clean it, roast the seeds, and cook a bread pudding inside it.
I really don’t have a recipe for either, but they worked out well, and paired beautifully, so I thought I’d walk through the process of how I did it.
After cutting off the top of the pumpkin, I removed the seeds and set them aside to be cleaned and roasted. Then I scraped out the stringy “guts”. I filled the cavity with bread pudding I’d mixed up and let sit overnight so the bread could really soak in the custard. Then I replaced the pumpkin top and baked the whole thing in a 325F oven for about 45 minutes in a bain marie set up in the oven.
While it cooked I put together the “cheese cake custard” using 8 oz of cream cheese, ~5 oz of BYU blue cheese, and 2 Clifford Farm eggs. I whipped all these in my stand mixer until they were well incorporated and creamy.
I laid out a pie crust, and piled chopped mushrooms (oyster and cremini) in a rough circle in the center. (Next time, I think I’ll add some caramelized onions and maybe some apple slices.) Then I poured the custard over the mushrooms and folded the crust up over the edges of the filling to hold things in and provide nice “look” to the whole thing.
The cheesecake tart baked for 20 minutes or so starting at 425 and being reduced to 300 after about 5 minutes.
All told, it made for a great dinner.
