Pumpkin Crisp....move over pumpkin pie!

I am a huge pumpkin pie fan.  It seems people either love it or hate it, well, I am in the 'love it' camp.  And, it has to be fresh pumpkin, none of the this canned stuff.  I always buy the small pie pumpkins as soon as they show up at the store in October, so I can have them on hand through the holidays for pumpkin pie, bread, cookies...and now CRISP!

I have to admit, I have been ignorant on the ways of pumpkin crisp until this past week.  My daughter's class had a formal Thanksgiving feast this past Friday.  All the families were invited, and it was pot luck style with all of the traditional Thanksgiving Day foods.  Let's not even get started on how this can suck for someone who is gluten-free, but that is not the point of this post.  As I was eating away at my safe plate of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (which I made), I was eyeing this dessert dish labeled pumpkin crisp.  I had never heard of it before, but everyone seemed to be going crazy about it, and saying it was amazing.  I knew I couldn't eat it, but I knew I could go home and recreate it.  

As soon as I got home that afternoon, I went online and searched "pumpkin crisp", and I kept finding blog posts referencing a recipe from Southern Living (November, 2005), which coincidentally is one of my favorite magazines. Of course the recipe was not gluten-free, but really...is that going to stop me? No. And, I just happened to have some leftover pumpkin from a pumpkin pie I made earlier in the week.

I made this yesterday for friends and I can't stop eating the leftovers.  And it is so easy to make!  It is more like a pumpkin cake rather than what I would think of as a crisp (thinking apple or berry crisp), but has the right amount of cake and crispy texture on top.

A word of warning, this is not low fat.  

Here is my version.  The recipe calls for pecans on top, and since I am not crazy about nuts in my food, I have left that out, and made a couple of other small changes (less sugar, and gluten-free cake mix).


Pumpkin Crisp
2 cups fresh, roasted pumpkin (a 15 oz. can of pumpkin will also work)
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 package of yellow cake mix, I used Betty Crocker, gluten-free yellow cake mix
1 cup melted butter
Directions
1. Preheat over to 350'
2. Stir together pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon;
3. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish;
4. Pour the pumpkin mix into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture;
5. Drizzle butter evenly over cake mix;
4. Bake at 350' for an hour or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream if desired.

This is so sinfully delicious and easy, this may be my new go-to dessert for the holidays.  I am even thinking of replacing my traditional pumpkin pie with this. I don't think you will be disappointed.