Seminole Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Gingersnaps 🍮

This is the last one out of the pumpkin, and it is the one I would make again first.

Four meals out of one Seminole pumpkin. We started with Soup Joumou, went sweet with pumpkin bread, went completely sideways with creamy Cajun shrimp pasta, and now we finish here.

Bread pudding is what I make when I want dessert to feel like a Sunday. Brioche, a pumpkin custard poured over the top, gingersnaps broken up in between, and ice cream melting into it at the table.

The gingersnaps are what make this different from every other pumpkin dessert. The ones buried in the custard go soft. The ones on top stay crunchy. You get both in the same spoon.

If you would rather watch me make it than read about it, the video is right here. It is about eight minutes.

Three things that make this one work

• Brioche, not sandwich bread. Brioche already has egg and butter in it, so it can take on that much custard and still hold its shape. Plain sandwich bread turns to paste on you.
• Let it soak. Twenty to thirty minutes after you pour the custard on, and press the bread down into it. Skip this and you get dry cubes sitting on top of a wet layer underneath.
• Do not bake the moisture out of it. You want bread pudding, not pumpkin flavored bricks. The center should be set and still soft.

What You Need

• 1 brioche loaf, about 1 lb, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 cups roasted Seminole pumpkin puree. About one small pumpkin
• 1 cup gingersnap cookies, broken into pieces
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the gingersnap topping

• 1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans, optional

How I Made It

1. Roast the pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, put it cut side down on a parchment lined sheet.

Roast 40 to 50 minutes, until a fork goes straight through with no fight.

Let it cool, scoop the flesh off the skin and puree it smooth. No liquid added. Measure out 2 cups.

Save the seeds if you want to grow your own next season. I do this every year and it is the reason I have not bought a pumpkin seed in a long time.

2. Get the bread ready

Turn the oven down to 350°F.

Cut the brioche into roughly 1 inch cubes and put them in your baking dish. A 9 by 13 works.

Break the gingersnaps into big pieces and scatter them through the bread, not just on top. You want them all the way down in there.

3. Make the pumpkin custard

Whisk the pumpkin puree, eggs, heavy cream, milk, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, vanilla and salt together until it is completely smooth.

Taste it before it goes on the bread. This is your last chance to add spice.

4. Pour and soak

Pour the custard evenly over the brioche.

Press the bread down with your hand or the back of a spoon so every cube gets under the liquid.

Let it sit 20 to 30 minutes. Do not rush this part.

5. Make the topping

Mix the crushed gingersnaps with the melted butter, and the pecans if you are using them.

Sprinkle it over the top right before it goes in the oven, not before the soak, or it turns to mush.

6. Bake

350°F for 45 to 55 minutes.

The center should be set but still moist. A knife in the middle comes out mostly clean with a little custard clinging to it. That is done.

If the top is browning faster than the middle is setting, lay a piece of foil over it loosely for the last fifteen minutes.

7. Serve it warm

Let it rest 10 to 15 minutes so it can finish setting up.

Vanilla ice cream on top while it is still warm. No sauce needed. The ice cream melting down into the custard is the sauce.

Questions about this one

Does this one taste like pumpkin?

Yes, and it is supposed to. The pasta hides the pumpkin. This one is the opposite. The pumpkin is the whole point and the spices are there to back it up.

Can I use canned pumpkin?

You can. Plain pumpkin puree, not pie filling, or it will be far too sweet once the sugar goes in.

What if I cannot find brioche?

Challah is the closest. A day old French bread works too, and stale is actually better than fresh here. Skip regular sandwich bread.

Can I put it together ahead of time?

Yes. Assemble everything except the topping, cover it and keep it in the fridge overnight. Add the topping in the morning and bake it straight from cold, and give it an extra ten minutes.

No gingersnaps in the house?

Biscoff cookies or graham crackers with a little extra ginger stirred into the custard. You will lose some of the bite but it still works.

Why is the middle watery?

Underbaked, or it did not rest long enough before you cut into it. Give it the full fifteen minutes out of the oven.

What other squash works?

Butternut, calabaza or kabocha. Roast it the same way and measure the same 2 cups.

Leftovers

Fridge, covered, 4 days. It is good cold out of the dish at eleven at night, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

To reheat, 300°F for about fifteen minutes with foil over it, or a single serving in the microwave for thirty seconds.

This one does freeze. Wrap portions tight, up to two months, thaw in the fridge overnight and warm it in the oven.

One pumpkin, four meals

That is the whole reason I did this run. People grow Seminole pumpkins because they are the easiest squash we can grow in Florida, and then they get to the kitchen and make soup and stop.

Soup, bread, a creamy Cajun pasta and this. Same pumpkin. Nothing about those four dishes tastes related.

If you are not growing them yet, plant them. They handle our humidity better than any other squash, they climb a fence instead of taking your whole bed, and a cured pumpkin sits on my shelf for close to a year without going bad.

The baking dishes, spices and pans I use are on my Amazon storefront. If you buy through them I make a small commission and it costs you nothing extra.

I put a recipe or a garden journal entry up every week on Patreon for five dollars a month.

If you make this one, come tell me. And tell me which of the four was your favorite, because mine changed three times.

Toni

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