Happy National Pumpkin Day!
You know I had to celebrate National Pumpkin Day with a pumpkin treat and I think I have created the perfect treat to represent pumpkin day! Let’s forget all the nitty gritty and get right to today’s recipe. Let me introduce to you my Pumpkin Pudding Cups.
These little cups are just perfect!! They are oranges cored out and filled with a creamy, easy to make pumpkin pudding. The flavor is pure pumpkin goodness. I made these on a whim last night, but not without issues. I originally was going to make a pumpkin mousse using canned coconut, however my coconut didn’t refrigerate well and it was liquid. At that point I already cored out my pumpkins and I needed to use them, so I went to my old stand by pudding mix Jello Vanilla Pudding.
However, this didn’t work out as planned either, but I fixed that. I thought I had instant pudding, so I added the pudding mix to the bowl and added coconut milk to it and whisked it. Nothing was happening. So I looked at the box, and it was cook and serve. Darn it! I never buy cook and serve. So I dumped it in a pot and cooked away. After 5 minutes I had a thick, luscious pudding. Poured it back into my bowl and let it cool. You may have noticed I used coconut milk. I am cutting back on dairy, so I thought I would try coconut milk and it worked out like a dream. I read that soy milk does not work at all. So as of right now this is a gluten-free and vegan pudding. Yup Jello pudding mix is vegan. As for the mix in, I used pure canned pumpkin, and some pumpkin spice. Give a nice mix and buttah bing buttah boom I had pumpkin pudding. But I need it to be more creamy, so I added 1 cup of TruWhip all natural whipped topping that is gluten free but not vegan. Now I have the perfect creamy pudding. I filled my pumpkin cups with the pudding and I had a fun Halloween/Pumpkin treat!
For the pumpkin cup I used oranges. They take a little bit of work to core them, so you must have a little patience. I did this with three oranges and one of the oranges was super easy to core out and the other two were a tad more difficult. What I did was cut out the top of orange and with a spoon I scrapped the inside of the orange. If you do this, wear an apron or an old shirt. I had a couple of shots of orange juice shoot at me. I found that using your fingers to pull out the inside worked the best. It took me about 20 minutes to core out 3 oranges. And no, you do not taste the orange in the pumpkin, but if you did, it would probably add a nice taste to the pumpkin pudding. I drew a little pumpkin face with a sharpie marker and I had a pumpkin! 🙂
- 5 medium size oranges
- 1 0.8 oz. pkg. Jello Sugar Free Vanilla Cook & Serve Pudding
- 2 cup unsweetened coconut milk, from carton
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- ½ tsp. pumpkin spice
- 1 cup Truwhip whipped topping
- In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, add pudding and coconut milk. Stir constantly until a rolling boil and until pudding gets thick; about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl to cool.
- Meanwhile core out the oranges. Make sure your oranges stand up straight without rolling over. With a sharp knife, cut around the top part of the orange; and take off the top and discard. With a grapefruit spoon or regular spoon take out the orange pulp by scrapping the insides of the wall of the orange. I also found that using your fingers to pull out the pulp works great. You need a little patience here. Some oranges are easier to get the pulp out than others.
- Once the pulp of the orange is out and the orange is pretty clean on the inside, rinse the outside of the orange with water because it will probably be sticky. Pat dry the orange with a paper towel. Once completely dried. With a black marker, make your pumpkin face on the orange. Set aside.
- In the bowl with the pudding, add pumpkin and pumpkin spice. Fold until no more yellow streaks are left from the pudding. Than fold in the whip cream, fold until no orange streak remain. Add about ½ cup of the filling to each orange.
- Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
I just find these little cups so cute and I am happy that coconut milk worked on the pudding part. I got rave reviews on these little cups. Little Jenny said it was really good and I took one to my friend at work and she thought they were adorable and tasty!! These are just the perfect little guilt-free pumpkin treat!
Looking for more fun pumpkin treats? Here are a few of my personal favorites.
Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Bread
Pumpkin Oatmeal in a Crockpot
Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin Pie Breakfast Jar Parfait
Mini Pumpkin Donuts
Pumpkin Pie Frappe / Pumpkin and Cream Frappe
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mascarpone Pumpkin Cheesecake in the Microwave
Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt
Pumpkin Pie Hummus
Pumpkin Mocha Spice Latte
Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate
Oatmeal Pumpkin Breakfast Smoothie
Pumpkin Pie Muffins
Pumpkin Spice Scones – Starbucks Copycat, Maybe??
Well I think I filled you up with pumpkin today! So be sure to get your pumpkins and carve them out for Halloween. I can’t believe Halloween is next week! That’s just crazy!
Have a wonderful day and tomorrow I have an awesome treat that I can’t wait to share it with you!
Toodles,
Jennifer
Pumpkin Bread
Preserving Pumpkins
Lemon Loaf (Starbucks Copycat)
Blueberry Dessert Pizza
These are super cute!! I love that you served them in orange cups…though at first glance i was SURE they were small pumpkins!
Thank You Joanne! I thought I would do something a little different. 🙂
Oh these are SO cute!! I didn’t know it was National Pumpkin Day, but you celebrated it well 🙂
Thank you so much Anna! You celebrated Pumpkin Day too without even knowing it!
So cute and what a nice, light dessert You are the creativity winner Jennifer! 🙂
Ahhhh, thank you Chris!! I thought of you today when I went to Williams and Sonoma. They had lovely canisters that said Sucre and the other was Farine. 🙂
What an adorable treat for national pumpkin day! Yummm 🙂
Thank you so much Kristi! 🙂
I love the little orange cups!!
Thanks Steph!
These are just so sweet!!!! fantastic idea. Thanks for linking up to Serenity Saturday link party, can’t wait to see what you share with us tomorrow
Natasha @ Serenity You
Thank you Natasha for having me! 🙂