Minimal Monday: Apple Crisp in a Mini Pumpkin

I love mini pumpkins.  I'm a little bit of a crazy mini pumpkin lady.  I'll buy one or two every time I go into the grocery store.  I collect them, I arrange them, I decorate with them, I stare at them.  They're all over the house.  

I also love to eat pumpkin, but for some reason it never dawned on me that you could cook these cute little minis.  I thought they were purely decorative, like those awful lacquered warty squash things.  How in the world are those things considered decorative, anyway?

Here's a cute fall dessert idea---individual apple crisps inside hollowed out mini pumpkins.

Open up the pumpkin, either by slicing off the top or cutting around the stem like a jack-o-lantern.  Thoroughly scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff.   Next time I'm going to make the opening of my pumpkin a little wider.  Make sure yours is wide enough for easy filling and eating.

Then cut up some fresh apples, toss them with a little lemon juice, flour, brown sugar, oats, butter and walnuts and stuff it right inside the pumpkin.   Really pack the filling in, smashing the apples a little, so you get as much as possible inside. 

Bake the whole package for about 30 to 40 minutes in a 350 oven and you'll get a steaming personal sized apple crisp bubbling away inside a soft pumpkin shell. 

Spoon some whipped cream on top and dust with nutmeg, or drizzle with maple syrup.

For each pumpkin dessert you'll need: 1/2 apple, peeled and chopped in small chunks, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp flour, 1/2 Tbsp soft butter, 2 Tbsp chopped walnuts and 2 Tbsp oats.  Just mix it and stuff it.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the pumpkin is soft.

And don't forget to eat all the soft creamy pumpkin, that's the best part!

This idea should help me make a dent in my mini pumpkin collection for sure---
Have a great Monday!


One year ago today---

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