ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Now that it’s officially autumn, it’s time for my pumpkin fanaticism to begin in earnest.  And while I found the whole savory pumpkin experiment last week to be a satisfying experience, deep down inside my heart I believe that pumpkin is really truly meant to be combined with sugar and spice and all manner of other delicious sweet autumnal delights.  Which is why I have been waiting with a happy heart to make Deb-from-Smitten-Kitchen’s most gloriously foodly pornographic pumpkin recipe:  pumpkin bread pudding.

When I searched her site for “pumpkin”, I knew without having to look at any of the nice pictures that this was going to be practically like the zenith of all pumpkin desserts.  And oh, those pictures are quite nice. So last night we had frogmore stew for supper and I bought a wholegrain baguette to go with it and I picked it out despite knowing it was far, far too much bread for us to eat.  And knowing exactly what would be done with the excess.

The frogmore stew, which I’d never made before, was pretty terrific actually. The name is misleading and it’s not actually a stew; rather it’s a southern seafood boil that you drain and then butter up and eat.  Or if you live at our house, you spray the hell out of it with “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray and call it good.  And stay turned, because the ICBIN Butter (Berliner?) spray will make a surprise appearance in my next number.  Enough about our tasty seafood boil, however.  Suffice to say that I chopped the portions down and substituted imitation crab for the shrimp.

And so today I came home from work and I went and sat in the bedroom with my husband and listened to a tediously detailed account of what he did that day (since he’s working on being a better conversation starter) and I gave him a painfully detailed account of my own day.  We talked a little and the whole time I was thinking about pumpkin pudding.  And after a while I got up and went into the kitchen and began to do things related to the pudding.  In a way, I was less excited about this recipe than the pumpkin casserole last week.  While the casserole could have gone either way, I felt quite strongly that this pudding recipe could not fail.  If it somehow turned out to be bad, the universe would never seem quite right again.

But I wanted to try and lighten it up a little.  While her recipe is already a lighter adaptation of the original, I didn’t have whole milk on hand and the fattiest milk I usually get is 1% anyway.  So it was all just what I had at home.  And really, the only irksome (read: deliciously fatty) ingredient was the butter that you put all over the bread.  And I had this idea in my mind that I’d just reduce the amount of melted butter.

I cubed the bread up and put it in this 11×7 inch dish that I’d zapped with nonstick baking spray, and while I mixed up the rest of everything I fretted over what to do about the butter. And in the end I wound up zapping it with about 50 sprays of the ICBINB spray.  And as everyone knows, 10 servings of zero calories equals zero calories.  Oh, zero.  I do so love you.

Aside from using lighter milk and totally faking that bread out on the butter front, I left the rest of the recipe alone.  Real sugar.  Real eggs.  And it’s easy.  All you do is whisk the stuff together.  Oh, except because I negligently had no ground cloves or ginger on hand, I replaced all her spices with pumpkin pie spice.  I tried grinding some fresh cloves, but my efforts were shameful.  I also had no bourbon.  So I couldn’t do that either.  But I insist, my version still bears a strong resemblance to the original. Even though it is in fact very easy to believe that this fluorescent yellow spray liquid is not butter.

So the consensus?  Totally great.  My husband didn’t like the multigrain bread because of all the little seeds and stuff in it, but I liked it just fine.  I guess we can go with plain bread next time, though.  Or wheat bread without the seeds.  Next time we’re going to plump up some sultanas or I can use up the dark raisins I have on the shelf.  I was thinking if I get that bourbon I can use it to soak the raisins.  Excitement!

Lightened Up Version of Deb’s Glorious Food-Porno Pumpkin Bread Pudding

• 5 cups whole grain bread, cubed into 1 inch pieces (about 5 oz)
• a lot of freaking sprays of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray
• 1-1/2 cups 1% milk (or whatever you keep around)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Chop up the bread and place it in an 11×7 inch baking dish in a single layer.  And zap the crap out of it with the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray.  Stir that up and get at least some of it on every piece of bread.  Let it sit while you get the real ingredients ready.

Whisk together the milk, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, salt and spice.  Pour the whole thing over the bread and make sure it all gets moistened.  Bake it around half an hour before eating.