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Acorn Squash Pudding and Pie

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acorn squash pudding

Acorn squash pudding serving with whipped cream.

Tired of Pumpkin Everything?

Thanksgiving is coming at us fast.  Along with all the traditional recipes, I like to find something new every year.  Here’s a dessert recipe that gives pumpkin a rest. And really, aren’t you about ready to scream if you hear pumpkin-flavored anything one more time?

Pssst!  Don’t tell the traditionalist, but I liked it BETTER than the very similar pumpkin dessert.

I love acorn squash. Spit them, take the seeds out, put honey and butter and nutmeg in the center–and maybe some sliced apples or applesauce, and bake them in a dish with some water in the bottom. But how about an acorn squash dessert?

Unfortunately, my husband does not share my appreciation of this long-lasting winter squash.  When I serve him a wedge of acorn squash, he scoops out a shallow spoonful, but leaves a good 1/2 inch in the shell.

And he does not have seconds.

LEFTOVERS

So if I bake acorn squash, I’m going to have leftovers.  And you know my opinion of leftovers, don’t you?  MAKE SOMETHING WITH THEM.

Which led to a quest for a good recipe for acorn squash pudding.  Along the way, I found the site, Historic Foodie, and this article on how early Americans used squash. Another article at the same site lists  all the squashes common in various parts of the country in the 17th and 18th century. (Acorn was known, but not common.)

Most recipe sites wanted me to make a pie out of the squash, but I was feeling lazy and just wanted to baked a pudding.  However, when I found a recipe for a streusel-topped acorn squash pie, I knew I had to try it — minus the pie crust. You can also just pour it into a pre-baked pie shell for a substitute for pumpkin pie. Simple and absolutely DELICIOUS!

My husband, the acorn-squash avoider is eating it up!

Acorn Squash Pie

Acorn Squash Pie

Pie with acorn squash pudding and ginger streusel topping.

Just add the mixed pudding ingredients to a pre-baked pie shell, bake for a while, add streusel,topping with ginger, and finish baking. Specifics at end of pudding recipe.

 

squash pudding
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Acorn Squash Pudding

When you are tired of pumpkin everything, make a streusel-topped pudding or a pie filling from acorn squash.
Course Dessert
Keyword pie, pudding
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked acorn squash
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp spices See Note
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup evaporated milk

Streusel Topping

  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter chilled
  • 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Instructions

  • Scoop squash out of shell and remove seeds. Mash or process in food processor.
  • Mix all filling ingredients (not streusel ingredients) in large bowl and beat until smooth.
  • Pour into 7" wide, deep casserole and bake one-half hour at 350 degrees. (To ensure even cooking, put casserole in larger shallow pan with an inch of water.)

Streusel Topping

  • Mix flour and sugar. Cut butter in small pieces.  Work butter into flour/sugar mixture with your fingers.  When you have small crumbs, stir in nuts. Set aside until the first half-hour baking is finished.
  • After half hour, pull casserole out of oven and sprinkle the streusel on top of the pudding. Put casserole back and bake an additional half hour--or until knife inserted in center comes out almost clean. (With smaller diameter casserole, the streusel will be deep and the baking will take longer than for a shallow dish or in a pie. See notes.)

Notes

SPICES:  You can use pumpkin pie spices or blend cinnamon and nutmeg.  I used a lebkuchengewuerz spice recipe left over from making the German Christmas cookies.
ACORN SQUASH PIE:
To use this recipe in a pie, mix pudding ingredients and pour into a pre-baked pie shell. Bake 25 minutes at 375 degrees, then add streusel and bake another 25 minutes, tenting the top with foil if necessary to keep it from getting too brown. For the pie, you do not need or want the water bath.
For extra Oomph, add 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger to the streusel topping.

Sweet Taters Pudding

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Erasmus closed his last letter saying, “The taters are ready.” He has requested that Suzi plant some sweet potatoes because he loves these sweet taters.

While the soldiers were simply peeling and boiling their sweet taters, when they got home, their wives would be more creative with sweet potatoes. For clues, I looked up some 19th century cook books.

From Gutenberg Project, you can obtain this historic cookbook: Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, by Elizabeth E. Lea (1850’s) and learn how to be a proper mid-19th century housewife.

“To boil sweet potatoes, put them in a pot with plenty of water; let them boil fast till you can run a fork through the largest; then pour off the water, and leave them in the pot a quarter of an hour; you can then peel the skin off or leave it on. Some prefer them baked in a dutch-oven; they should have a quick heat; large potatoes will take an hour to bake. It has been found a good way to boil them, till nearly done; then peel and bake them; they are drier and nicer. ” This excerpt comes from Vintage Recipes.com

Recipes from another early cookbook, The Virginia Housewife:

Stewed Sweet Potatoes

Wash and wipe them, and if they be large, cut them in two lengths; put them at the bottom of a stew pan, lay over some slices of boiled ham; and on that, one or two chickens cut up with pepper, salt, and a bundle of herbs; pour in some water, and stew them till done, then take out the herbs, serve the stew in a deep dish. Thicken the gravy, and pour over it. This excerpt from Vintage Recipes.com, which no longer is alive.

A Novel Use for Sweet Taters

In the South, the Union’s blockades kept them from getting a supply of coffee, so they conjured a drink out of many different foods.

“To prepare sweet potato coffee we pared the potatoes, cut into small bits, dried and parched, adding a little butter before taking from the oven and grinding. Tubers, like carrots or yams were cut into small pieces, dried, toasted and ground up.”
From the Cape Fear Civil War RoundUp.

Sweet Potato Pone

Add to the mashed potatoes instead of flour sifted corn meal. Melt the lard and wet up with boiling water. Leave the dough very stiff then break into it one at a time two fresh eggs. Work them well through the mass. Take it up by small handfuls, toss them from one hand to the other and flatten them lightly around the sides of a hot baking pan very well greased. Bake quickly until a crisp brown crust forms on top and bottom.

I tried one below, Sweet Potato Pudding.  My comments follow the recipe.

Potato Pudding

Shredded sweet taters

Shredded sweet potatoes ready to mix in to the batter.

Peel and grate your sweet potatoes upon a very coarse grater. To a quart grated, take six eggs, a large cup of butter three heaping cups of sugar, a cup of cream, a cup of milk and the juice and rind of a lemon. Beat the eggs very light with the sugar and butter, then add the potatoes then the milk and cream a little at a time. Put in the lemon rind — grated — and the juice last of all. Pour the mixture in a deep dish and set in a hot oven. When it has crusted over the top, stir the crust down so another may form. Do this twice. Serve very hot with plenty of wine sauce.

My Experiment

I tried the recipe, substituting half and half for the milk and cream, reducing the milk, and using orange rind and juice rather than lemon. I didn’t happen to have a lemon, but besides, I like the combination of orange and sweet potato flavor.  The ladies of Salt Lake at this period would probably not have had oranges, though.

I said a little ‘thank you’ frequently as I prepared this recipe. For my vegetable peeler instead of a paring knife to peel the potatoes; for my food processor to grate them; for my electric mixer to mix the eggs, butter and sugar instead of having to use a wooden spoon; and for my electric oven which I can (almost) count on for a steady temperature and never have to add a stick of wood to.

Tater Pudding for the Oven

Sweet Potato Pudding ready for the oven in Corning Ware baking dish.

This recipe makes a very big bowl of tater pudding, as you can see.  However, you don’t need to allow for headroom.  It does not rise like a souffle.

sweet tater pudding crust

Stirring down the crust of the sweet potato pudding

Since the original recipe does not give a baking time, I had to guess when to stir the crust down. I translated “hot oven” as 425 F. The crust did not brown, just began to get thick while the pudding below was still liquid.  I stirred it down at twenty minutes, forty minutes. And took it out at 60 minutes.

baked sweet tater pudding

Baked sweet potato pudding

The tater pudding tasted good except that it was waaaay too sweet.  And when the pudding stood for 20 minutes or so (at room temperature), the liquid separated out.

After making the recipe, I compared this 1898 version to the 1960s edition of Joy of Cooking’s sweet potato pudding and found the proportions to be very similar. The biggest difference in ingredients was that “Joy” would use 12 egg yolks and 4 egg whites for this amount of pudding. AND instead of baking in a  “hot” oven, they use a low-moderate oven–325 degrees.  That difference in heat could explain the separation. By the way, “Joy” used orange juice, just like I did.

Although my experiment with the 1898 sweet taters puddin’ did not work out, I think it is worth trying again. Next time I’ll definitely reduce the sugar and lower the temperature. Let me know what adjustments you make if you decide to try this sweet tater pudding.