Pumpkin Pie Gingersnap Dessert

Yesterday I shared the recipe for my friend Muriel’s Pumpkin Pie Dessert. It’s really yummy and really easy. Last night, when I went to MAKE the recipe, I was missing several of the ingredients and that inspired me to tweak and experiment a bit.

For starters, I didn’t have a cake mix in the house. I also didn’t have canned pumpkin pie filling. I just had frozen fresh pumpkin. So I set out looking for alternatives and the first thing I happened upon was a bag of gingersnaps that was probably close to a year old. Definitely time to use those up…and definitely fodder from some creative variations! Here’s the final result:

Pumpkin Pie Gingersnap Dessert

For the crust, process in the food processor:

• Approx. 12 oz. ginger snaps
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 1/3 c. sugar

Press the crust into a 10×14 inch glass baking dish that has been Pam sprayed.

For the filling, whisk together:

• 4 c. fresh pumpkin, cooked and pureed
• 1 c. half and half
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. ground ginger
• 1/2 t. ground cloves
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3 eggs

Pour over the crust in the baking dish.

In the food processor, whir together for the crumble:

• 1 c. ginger snaps
• 1/4 c. cold butter
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. flour

Sprinkle the crumble over the top of the filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until the knife comes out clean when you slide it into the center of the filling.

The gingersnaps take this dessert in an entirely different direction. If you’re a real purist for making everything from scratch, you can even make your own gingersnaps to use to make the crust and crumble. This isn’t quite so fast as Muriel’s original recipe, but my whole family really liked this homemade dessert.

Barb