Piece of custard!

I’m so happy to be posting my first Gooseberry Patch recipe!

  As the readers at Real Farmwives of America & Friends voted on, I will be cooking from Autumn with Family and Friends for the next three months.
  So, let’s jump right in!! I started with the Pumpkin Custard Crunch recipe.
First, gather your ingredients for the custard part:
Beat three eggs…
And add one 29 ounce can of pumpkin (that’s the big ones), 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. (I went heavy on the pie spice. I’m a spice girl. But not like the scary lip-synching ones from the 90s.)
I would recommend mixing the pumpkin and spices together first, then adding the eggs. It takes a little extra “oomph” to get the eggs to combine evenly with the pumpkin, and I think adding the spices first might help.
Add one cup of milk… (I used skim)
one can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. (I used the non-fat sweetened condensed milk. I’m going to be using a cup of butter later – I’m trying to cut back on the calories where I can!)Mix it up to a beautiful pumpkin pie-like consistency, and pour it into a greased 9x13 baking pan.
Then gather your ingredients for the crunch topping:
Melt one cup (two sticks) of butter. This took about 90 seconds in the microwave.
Mix 3 cups of quick-cooking oats, 1 cup of packed brown sugar… (I used the Splenda brown sugar blend. If you try that, you should cut the amount of brown sugar by half. I forgot to do that. Whoops.)
Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of crushed walnuts or pecans, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. (Again, I went a bit heavy on the cinnamon.)
Mix it all up, and add the melted butter. Toss that mixture until it is a buttery, crumby, yummy mess.
(I had to switch to a bigger bowl for this part. I thought my 8-cup bowl would be plenty, but… 3 cups oats + 1 cup brown sugar + 1 cup flour + 1 cup pecans = 6 cups. Plus butter. Plus room for mixing. Note to self – always use a bigger bowl!)
Spoon the crunch topping over the custard. Don’t be shy. You have over 6 cups of topping! Be generous, and layer heavily. Seriously. There’s about an inch of “topping” here.Bake it at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. In my stoneware pan, it took 55 minutes to bake.

Serve warm, and enjoy!!This would be great served with vanilla ice cream (I didn’t have any), or whipped cream (didn’t have any of that, either).
This is also fantastic cold for breakfast the next morning. Hypothetically. Or not so hypothetically.
Mine came out a bit too sweet, but that is all my fault for adding extra brown sugar. Although I do like the brown sugar flavor. I think this would be even a notch better with 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg added to the custard… That’s for next time!
The printable recipe card:

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.