Love creamy pumpkin pie but don’t want to fuss with a crust? Then this is the recipe for you! Instead of using day-old white bread, a pumpkin quick bread makes the base, and all the gingerbread deliciousness is worked into the custard.
ingredients
Pumpkin Loaf
Custard
directions
Preheat the oven to 325 °F (160 °C). Grease a 9-x-5-inch loaf pan and line the sides with parchment so that it comes up the sides.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl and add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Whisk the pumpkin puree and milk together and stir this into the butter mixture. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon and stir this into the batter until incorporated. Pour into the prepared pan and bake the cake for 60-70 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin before turning it out to cool completely. The loaf can be made a day ahead and wrapped until ready to use (or is delicious all on its own!)
Once cooled, cut the loaf into 1-inch (25 mm) cubes and place them into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks and then whisk in the brown sugar, molasses, milk, cream and spices. Pour this over the pumpkin loaf cubes, stir to coat and let this sit for 10 minutes to absorb, stirring once or twice – don’t be concerned if the pumpkin loaf breaks down a bit as you stir.
Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) and grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line the outside bottom and sides of the pan with tin foil (to prevent leaks) and place the pan in a roasting pan or other dish that can be filled with water. Pour the bread pudding mix into the springform pan and fill the roasting pan with boiling water. Bake this for about 90 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the water bath onto a cooling rack to cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 4 hours before serving.