What does pumpkin taste like? The flavor commonly associated with the flesh of autumn’s orange globe is actually that of the spices traditionally used with it. Ginger is the most noticeable, with heavy helpings of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Pumpkin alone is quite bland. Moreover, it can be cast in various other directions.
Far less frequently does one find pumpkin flavored with orange, honey, banana or maple. Not sweet, but equally successful are curry, onion and Cheddar cheese. The point is that cooked pureed pumpkin has far more talent than pie at Thanksgiving.
Considering the number of pumpkins dotting the fields and farm stands, I am led to wonder whether they will be used with other than decorative effect during the autumn months.
Pureed
Add pureed pumpkin to your bread dough mixture in place of some of the liquid. Use it in place of sour cream in a coffee cake or to moisten oatmeal-raisin cookie batter. Fold some into the cream sauce for macaroni and cheese or if you must hide it, add it to tomato sauce. Thin it with cream and sherry or with chicken stock for soup served with a dusting of parmesan.
Peeled pumpkin, cooked slowly in a minimum of water and then pureed, freezes beautifully. Pack it in half-pint or pint size containers for convenient use later on; most recipes call for a cup or two of pumpkin at a time. When you or your family carve a jack-o’-lantern, pare some of the flesh from the inside of the pumpkin and cook it, rather than allowing the entire vegetable to perform at Halloween.
The following cake contains no ginger and does not have a distinctly pumpkin taste. It is richly laced with fruits and nuts, delicious with coffee or mulled cider on a nippy day. If you plan to freeze it, omit the icing. The recipe may be doubled. Incidentally, I did not forget the eggs—they are not required.
Date-Nut Pumpkin Squares
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. warm water
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup dark raisins
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Grated rind of 1 orange
Orange icing (recipe below)
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour an eight-inch-square baking pan. Dissolve the baking soda in the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin and sugar. Stir in the oil.
Mix together the flours, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Dust the dates and raisins with about a tablespoon of this mixture. Stir the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl with the pumpkin. Add the baking soda mixture. Then fold in the nuts, fruit mixture and orange rind.
Spread batter in prepared pan and bake about one hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack in the pan, remove from the pan and spread with orange icing. When the icing has set, cut into squares to serve.
Makes 16 two-inch squares.
Orange Icing
1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 Tbs. orange juice
Combine sugar and orange juice and stir until smooth. Use at once.
