Thursday, September 22, 2011

Pumpkin Pie Dip

I got this recipe several years ago from one of my colleagues at Willoughby Elementary School (Norfolk, Virginia), and it quickly became a Fall staple in my repertoire.  I recently 'tweaked' the original recipe, and I realized I'd never posted it here before, so I thought, now's the perfect time.  Right season and everything!  :-)  This dip has traditionally been used to dip ginger snaps into, which is a heavenly combination.  I make my homemade chewy ginger cookies to go along with it, and my friend Linda pointed out this week that apples would also pair very nicely with this dip.  She was right!  Its not a 'low-calorie' option, but man, is it good.  Its great for potlucks/ food functions because, in a bind, store-bought ginger snaps work great too. 


Pumpkin Pie Dip
Ingredients:
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened (I use light because it is a little softer)
1 c. powdered sugar (icing sugar)
2 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. (or less) sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
dash of ground cloves
dash of nutmeg

Directions:
In a mixer, blend together cream cheese and icing sugar, until light and fluffy.  In a separate bowl, mix together all other ingredients.  Add to cream cheese mixture, and blend
until well combined.  Serve in small, cleaned out  pumpkin or decorative bowl, with ginger cookies or apples, or both.

1 comment:

  1. Kristen (and others): The original recipe called for 1/2 a can of "pumpkin pie mix" (with the sugar and spices already mixed in), but as this already makes a TON of dip, I never wanted to double it to use the entire can of mix. (Plus, I like the ability to put my own amounts of sugar and spices in to my own taste).

    Up here, our pumpkin puree comes in a much larger can than in the States, so I used 1 c. for the pumpkin scones, and the rest, which came to about 2 cups, for the dip. K10- my guess would be that for you it would be about one can's worth for this dip (the "2 cups" was a guesstimate, as I tried to measure it as I pulled it out of the can)... The nice thing about this recipe is you can play around with the amounts, to your personal preferences. If you want it a little less pumpkin-y, you could use less pumpkin (like use half the can for this dip, and half the can for something else, like the pumpkin scones or muffins), and if you wanted a really pumpkin-y flavour, you could do less cream cheese and more pumpkin. Its really up to you. Play around with it and let me know how it goes!!!

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