Pumpkin Recipe
As it is pumpkin season and Halloween is this coming weekend, I thought I would make a special pumpkin recipe. When I did a quick search on my blog to see which recipes I already had, I was amazed to find there were already 8 pumpkin recipes on here! Why pumpkin recipes? Well, did you know in the UK approximately 14.5 milllion pumpkins will go to waste over the Halloween weekend! That is a LOT of waste and being the #FoodSavvy volunteer that I am, I need to get more people eating their pumpkins!
Pumpkin Inspiration
Having watched the pastry episode of the Great British Bake off this week (spoiler alert if you’ve not yet seen it), I was intrigued by the chonuts! Now, a chonut apparently is a doughnut made from choux pastry – who knew! So you make a choux, pipe it into rounds, then fry it. You then either fill it, or top it with your chosen flavours. Armed with this new knowledge (every day is a school day)! I have taken the easier and healthier option of a ready made puff pastry, stuffed before cooking! Now, if you have a name for these, that would be great – so far I have only come up with puffnuts!
I have made a spiced pumpkin custard for the filling, then topped them with a maple glaze and some toasted pecans. Thanks to my little sister for the inspiration!
The Pumpkin Recipe Details
I have tried to make this recipe as simple as possible. I have used ready made puff pastry sheets, roasted pumpkin (any type of pumpkin or squash will work), milk, vanilla, nutmeg, maple syrup and pecans. Have a look at the recipe and see the slideshow to see how to assemble them.
Puff pastry rings filled with a spiced pumpkin custard
- 100 g roasted/baked pumpkin flesh cooled
- 50 ml milk of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1 packet ready rolled puff pastry
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (slightly warmed if possible)
- 7-8 pecan halves
Mash the pumpkin with a fork until smooth. Add the milk and mix until smooth and combined. Add the vanilla, nutmeg & salt and mix in well.
Cut 2 circles from the pastry, 1 slightly larger than the other. Cut a small circle (same size) from the centre of each.
Place the pumpkin mix on the smaller pastry circle, leaving a pastry edge on both sides (see photo).
Cover the pumpkin with the larger circle, and gently press the pastry middles together to seal the pumpkin in. Repeat with the outside until you have a doughnut shaped filled pastry.
Using the tines of a fork, gently press all the edges together to seal completely. Place on a lined baking tray and repeat until you have 4 doughnuts. If you wish, use two mini centre circles to make filled mini puffs.
Bake at Gas Mark 6, (400f / 200c) for 15 minutes (or cook in an air fryer at 200c for 6 minutes).
Whilst the pastries are cooking, chop the pecan halves and dry toast in a frying pan. Set aside.
As soon as the pastries are cooked, brush with maple syrup and sprinkle a section with the pecans.
Enjoy!
Have a look at each stage below to visualise the steps needed to assemble these. Note that these can be a bit rough around the edges, with a bit of filling on show as this will be concealed when the pastry puffs.
Cut 2 circles of different sizes, cut holes out of the centre. 
Create a ring of filling on the smaller shape 
Cover the filling with the larger shape 
Press the centre in first to seal the filling 
Then cover the outside of the filling. 
Use a fork to seal all the edges together 
Your shape should resemble a doughnut 
Bake until crispy 
Glaze with maple syrup and sprinkle with toasted pecans
What do I need?
You can (as with most of my recipes), make these as easy or complicated as you wish! Go very simple and fold the pastry in half over the filling, or go posh and use precise measurements and get symmetrical clean donut shapes!
Whichever you choose, if you are new to cooking or your kitchen needs a refresh, here are a few useful things for this recipe. I receive a small commission if you click and purchase through these links (this is at no additional cost to you)!
Serving
You can serve these just as they are, maybe with a mug of hot chocolate, or even with a scoop of ice-cream.
Storage
These prefer to be eaten the same day they are made – so they retain their crispiness. They can be eaten the next day, but they will be much softer – albeit still tasty!
Alternative pumpkin recipes
Have a look at some of the other great pumpkin recipe ideas on here.
Pumpkin Pancakes – this one is a delicious savoury recipe
Pumpkin Gnocchi – with three different ways to serve it
Pumpkin Spice Latte – because it just tastes so good!
Pumpkin Nut Loaf – one of my favourite ways to use up extra pumpkin
Sharing
I hope you have a play with these! Even if you just experiment making the custard with your leftover pumpkin and put it on top of a shortbread biscuit or something! I love seeing your adaptions and interpretations of my recipes and I’d love to see your photos of these! What are your favourite recipes to use up pumpkin?
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I hope to speak with you soon
Laurena x
Hi Laurena, what a novel idea🙂 I’m now tempted to buy some some puff pastry to make some pumpkin turnovers. I’ll send a photo whenever I make them lol. So far it’s just been the standard pumpkin soup. I’ve also used some pumpkin (Hokkaido) alongside some German ‘knoepfle’ (basically gnocchi). Mum sometimes used to make Cypriot pumpkin pasties (dough made with orange juice with a pumpkin, cinnamon and bulghur wheat filling).
Eva they are so good and turnovers sounds like a great plan (maybe that was the word I was searching for when I wrote “fold the pastry in half over the filling”)! Gnocchi is a great way to get flavour into pumpkin and I’m loving your Mum’s pumpkin pasty idea – I might have to try that! Have you got yourself some mini pumpkins for decoration yet? Do they have pumpkin farms near you so you can pick your own?
I’ve just had a look for any pumpkin farms near us and couldn’t find anything- there should be, it’s quite rural lol. I’ve seen those mini pumpkins on people’s windowsills outside their homes…couldn’t help thinking, if that was in London or any other big city, they’d be nicked haha. They’re very cute🧡
Oh, that does surprise me – although, having said that, I had to travel over 40 minutes to get to my nearest pumpkin farm! Apparently, the mini ones are actually called munchkins! I have a few which I will eventually eat, but for now, I love just looking at them! Yes, probably nicked and thrown at passers by or dropped off bridges over dual carriageways such is the sad state of things here!
I don’t ‘like’ the bit about the morons throwing things over dual carriageway bridges etc🤪😚
We had a spate of it here… bricks no less!!!
My goodness 😮
I’ll never forget the time some gits threw a brick onto the bus window where I was sitting, very very thankfully it was that special kind of shatterproof glass!!
Gosh! That was fortunate – wow, that could have been absolutely awful! I’d remember that every time I got on a bus though!