Saturday’s Basket-Pancetta Pumpkin Fritters & Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Sugar Pie Pumpkin from Walnut Hill Farm

As mentioned last week, beautiful pumpkins of all varieties have overtaken the market.  Wanting to create a new recipe far from the traditional Pumpkin Pie, I picked up this beauty form the Walnut Hill Farm stand on Saturday and got started.  What I came up with was light and airy, salty and sweet and had just the right combination of flavors to play off of each other.  This dessert is surprisingly easy to put together and a great use of the seasonally abundant orange, fleshy fruit.

Fritters:

1 cup pumpkin*

2 tbsp melted butter (unsalted)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 large egg

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup breadcrumbs made from cinnamon bread  (cut into bite size pieces and toast in oven until dry.  Once toasted, whirl in blender to make crumbs.)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 cup Pancetta, small dice

Cinnamon Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp + 1 tsp powdered sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

To make whipped cream:

Add heavy whipping cream to a medium size mixing bowl and begin to incorporate air into the cream using hand mixer on low.  Increase speed and once thickened slightly, add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.

Continue to blend until stiff peaks form, cover bowl with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

To make batter:

Blend pumpkin and butter until smooth and then add sugar, salt & cinnamon.  With a whisk, blend in egg until fully incorporated. Slowly whisk flour and breadcrumbs into batter.  Using a spoon, fold Pancetta into mix.

To fry:

In a large, heavy bottomed pan, add 50/50 canola, vegetable oil blend until at least 1″ deep.  Heat the oil to 325°.  Working in batches, use a small cookie scoop to drop rounded spoonfuls of batter into the oil.  The fritters will start to float when they need to be flipped. Cook approximately 1 minute per side or until golden brown.  Keep warm in oven while working through remaining batter.  Serve warm with Cinnamon Whip Cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Makes approximately 20-25 fritters.

*Fresh roasted pumpkin is best, roast in oven with a sprinkle of 1 tbsp brown sugar at 350° for about 20-25 minutes or until soft to touch. Once roasted, I was able to extract about 3 cups of flesh from the pumpkin you see above so there was more than enough for this recipe and others.  If fresh pumpkin is not available, substitute with canned.

Saturday’s Basket is written by a Forest Hill resident and is a weekly review of South of the James Market purchases and the recipes she creates with her market finds. View these and more recipes at Pantry2Plate, a food blog with stories of cooking as best as she knows how.