Tired of pumpkin pie and feeling quite adventurous, our very own TeamSugar decided to create bite-size pumpkin treats. She experimented with phyllo dough, pie crust, and wontons. The wontons won out, and she ended up serving them for Thanksgiving. However, baked pumpkin pillows made with super-thin pie crust was a wonderful second place. If you'd like to check out her technique and recipes, all you have to do is read more

Update Here are the pumpkin wontons (above) I served for Thanksgiving! They were a hit and looked lovely!

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I set out to test run and invent our dessert for Thanksgiving! I love pumpkin flavor but hate the texture of pumpkin pie, so we decided to attempt a pumpkin ravioli or something along those lines! Thanks for all of the ideas !

For the recipe, I knew I couldn't use a traditional pie filling as it would be too runny and would probably cause a disaster once they were fried. So Saturday morning, I set out baking my first sweet pumpkin. I cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff! Placed it cut side down on tin-foil and covered with tin foil. Baked it for 2 hours on 350 degree. Once it has cooled, just scrap out the innards and place in a bowl.

I tested out two recipes by dividing the pumpkin in half and tested ricotta cheese and cream cheese. The ricotta cheese added a grainy texture but the cream cheese was smooth and creamy. Below is my favorite pumpkin recipe for one small pumpkin.

Pumpkin Filling with Cream Cheese
1 small sweet pumpkin
9 tablespoons brown sugar
3 cardamom pod fresh ground
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Hazelnut
12 grates of whole nutmeg
6 oz cream cheese

After making what I think is one of the best pumpkin fillings, it was then onto which would be best for my bite sized pumpkin treats, wontons, pie crust, phyllo dough?

With the help of my boyfriend, we fried all three kinds and had a winner! The pie crust although it was crispy on the outside, the inside still was a little mushy, a little too similar to pumpkin pie. The phyllo was crispy but wasn't as flaky as I was expecting. (phyllo on the left and pie crust on right)

As you can probably guess, the wontons were really delicious! The wonton remained crispy and so delicious!

Since I had already tested so many different possibilities, I thought perhaps the pie crust and phyllo deserved another chance but in the oven this go around. I rolled out the pie crust, so it was on the thinner side and prepared a couple sheets of phyllo. Surprisingly, I liked the pie crust better than the phyllo as it has such a distinct taste that is overpowered the pumpkin. The pie crust pumpkin "pillows" were delightful with all of the pumpkin pie taste and absolutely none of the texture as the crust was crispy!

While, the pie crust pumpkin "pillows" were a close second and a little easier as they require no frying! For Thanksgiving, I will be mass producing a pumpkin wonton with fresh cardamom whipping cream and cinnamon drizzle!

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