Mini Pumpkin Brûlée
If you’re looking for a perfect dinner party dessert that doubles as a conversation starter, this mini pumpkin brûlée fits the bill like no other dish. This vegan dessert is scrappy, gorgeous, and delicious!
As someone who hates wasting food, I was really taken aback when I learned about the sheer amount of pumpkin that ends up in the landfill every year. Many people only use pumpkins (including mini ones) as decorations that end up in the trash after Halloween.
Curious about low-waste cooking? Learn how to utilize food scraps, raid your kitchen at the end of the week, and preserve produce with PlantYou Scrappy Cooking.
What is Brûlée?
Brûlée refers to a culinary technique where a layer of sugar is caramelized on the surface of a dish using intense heat using a kitchen torch or broiler.
What sets this recipe apart is the eye-catching presentation. This mini pumpkin brulee is served inside an entire pumpkin, albeit a miniature one.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This mini pumpkin brûlée is probably the most classy dessert I’ve ever made. If you’re trying to elevate your dinner party, this recipe is for you.
- Just because it’s fancy, doesn’t mean it’s difficult to make. The recipe itself is fairly quick and requires minimal equipment.
- If you’re someone who grows their own pumpkins, this mini pumpkin brûlée is a cool way to deal with a surplus. Smaller pumpkins often get overlooked because they don’t provide enough yield for a hearty recipe but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be used for a cute dessert. This is such an essential fall recipe… It is creamy, earthy, and warm. Perfect for sweater weather!
Key Ingredients
- Mini pumpkins you see as Halloween decorations are often edible. They will serve as both an ingredient and a vessel.
- Cashews provide a rich, creamy base for the vegan custard filling.
- Pumpkin pie spice is a blend that just screams autumn! It can infuse any recipe with fall flavors.
- Granulated sugar (such as coconut sugar or brown sugar) is an essential part of a brulee. It caramelizes at high heat, creating a signature crunchy top.
Hack It!
- This recipe contains cashews to create a creamy custard texture. If you’re allergic to nuts, you could use soaked sunflower seeds instead.
- This recipe can actually be adapted even if you don’t have access to small pumpkins. If you’re using a larger pumpkin for a different meal, you can use the innards for the custard and broil it in ramekins.
- The sugar for the top can be regular sugar, brown sugar, or even coconut sugar. The refined sugar varieties tend to caramelize differently to one another so be sure to keep a close eye on your brulee while it’s in the oven.
- Pumpkin pie spice is usually widely available in the stores this time of the year. However, you can create custom spice according to your preference, adding some cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and clove.
- Make sure to either pre-soak the cashews overnight or quickly boil them for 10 minutes to soften them up.
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1: With a sharp knife, make a flat cut, slicing the top off mini pumpkins. Scoop out the sinnards with a spoon until the mini pumpkins are hollow.
Step 2: Separate the seeds from the pulp.
You can use the seeds for a scrappy cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds recipe.
Step 3: Add the pumpkin pulp to a high-speed blender, along with coconut milk, maple syrup, spices, and cashews.
Step 4: Blend everything together until you have a thick pumpkin custard.
Top tip: it helps to soak the cashews overnight before blending.
Step 5: Pour the creamy custard mixture into your hollow pumpkins, and transfer them to the fridge to set. I would recommend leaving them for a few hours.
Step 6: Just before serving dessert, sprinkle the top of each serving with half a tablespoon of sugar.
Broil the makeshift pumpkin “ramekins” on the top shelf of your oven for 1-2 minutes, until the sugar is caramelized and hard on top. Enjoy immediately.
Pumpkin Stats
It’s well-documented that a significant amount of pumpkins are discarded after Halloween. In the United States alone, over 148 million Americans planned to carve a pumpkin for Halloween celebrations in 2022.
Out of about 1.9 billion pounds of pumpkins grown each year in the US, 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins end up in landfills.
Efforts to reduce pumpkin waste include promoting the use of edible pumpkins for cooking and encouraging composting or other forms of organic waste management. Additionally, some communities organize events like pumpkin recycling or encourage residents to turn their pumpkins into compost rather than sending them to landfills.
Other Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Love
- Pumpkin Pie Bites
- Vegan Pumpkin Spice Creamer
- Pumpkin Spice Latte Brownies
- Taylor Swift’s Pumpkin Cookies
- Oat Flour Pumpkin Muffins
For even more healthy, plant-based recipes, check out the PlantYou Planner! It’s a digital meal planner that features over 600 delicious vegan recipes! Every recipe can be adjusted to make enough servings for your household size. What’s more, you can take advantage of the FREE beginner vegan meal plan before you make up your mind.
The Recipe: Mini Pumpkin Brulee
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup raw cashews, soaked overnight or boiled for 10 minutes
- ¾ cup coconut milk, canned
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- pumpkin pulp, from inside mini pumpkins
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- First, prepare the pumpkins. Using a sharp knife, make a flat cut all the way through the small pumpkins, cutting the top off.
- Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and pulp to hold them out. Separate the seeds from the pulp. You can make crispy pumpkin seeds with those.
- To a high speed blender, add the pumpkin pulp, coconut milk, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spices and soaked cashews. Combine until completely smooth.
- Pour the custard into the four empty pumpkins, and place in the fridge to cool and set. Just before serving, add the pumpkins to a baking sheet, and sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar each. Place the ramekins on the top shelf of your oven and broil for 1 to 2 minutes, until the sugar is brown, caramelized and hard on top. Enjoy immediately.
Notes
- If you’re allergic to nuts, you could use soaked sunflower seeds instead.
- If you’re using a larger pumpkin for a different meal, you can use the innards for the custard and broil it in ramekins.
- The sugar for the top can be regular sugar, brown sugar, or even coconut sugar.
- You can create custom spice according to your preference, adding some cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and clove.
- Make sure to either pre-soak teh cashews overnight or quickly boil them for 10 minutes to soften them up.