Easy Maple Pumpkin Crisp Recipe

Two of my favorite fall flavors are pumpkin and maple and this delicious pumpkin dessert combines both of those. It’s not quite as easy as this pumpkin crunch cake, but it’s even more delicious! And it’s almost as easy – just one more step! The recipe includes an amazing pumpkin filling with a little maple flavor plus an oat crumble topping on the top and bottom of the filling. Pumpkin sandwiched between buttery, crumbly, goodness sounds like a pretty amazing fall dessert to me. It’s also pretty fool proof. Just mix a bunch of ingredients dumped into a cast iron skillet and baked. Plus, I recommend adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And who doesn’t love any dessert you can eat with vanilla ice cream? Hello chocolate brownie cake.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Butter – I recommend a high quality butter like Kerrygold since you really get the flavor of the butter in the crisp topping. Maple flavoring – if you don’t have maple flavoring, just use more pure maple syrup instead. The maple flavor may not be quite as pronounced, but it’ll still taste delicious. Oats – any oats will work with this recipe as long as they’re not cooked and not the stuff you just add water to (instant oatmeal). You want them to be actual oats that will have body in the topping.

Instructions

There are two main parts to this recipe – making the crumbling topping and making the pumpkin filling. We’ll start with the topping. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda, vanilla, and cubed butter in a large bowl. Mix together using either a pastry cutter or a butter knife. The goal is to make sure that the butter gets incorporated well into the the dry ingredients and just mixing it with a spoon doesn’t work well. Split your topping in half and add half on the bottom of a cast iron skillet. You’ll save the other half to top the pumpkin filling once that’s done. Next you’re going to make the pumpkin filling for the center of the pumpkin crisp. Beat eggs in a large bowl until they’re a light yellow color. Then add the sugar, pumpkin, heavy cream, cinnamon, maple flavoring, and maple syrup. Beat everything together either with a hand or stand mixer until well blended. Pour the pumpkin filling on top of the crisp topping in the cast iron skillet. Top the filling with the other half of the oat crumble topping. Lightly spread it around if necessary to ensure all of the pumpkin filling is completely covered. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes then turn down the heat and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the middle doesn’t jiggle at all. To test the jiggle, lightly move the cast iron skillet around. If the inside moves, it’s still jiggly. If not, it should be good to go. Remove from oven and cool on a wire cooking rack. Once cooled a bit, served with ice cream or whipped cream. Or don’t wait until it’s cooled and enjoy it warm – that’s my personal favorite! It’s good both ways.

Expert Tips

Use cold butter to make it easier to cube and mix into the topping.
Substitute maple flavoring with an additional tablespoon of real maple syrup if you don’t have maple flavoring. Use a cast iron skillet that’s at least 10 inches. Anything smaller and you’ll have pumpkin running over the edges of the skillet. Don’t wait for the topping to brown before removing from the oven. The topping doesn’t really brown in this recipe, it just cooks together. If the center is no longer jiggly, the pumpkin crisp is done. Serve topped with ice cream, whipped cream, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, or really anything you’d serve with pumpkin!