Southern Living's Pumpkin Crisp

Today marks exactly one week until Ian's birthday, and I've got almost all of my loose ends tied up ... one small present already at the house, one en route with guaranteed delivery by this Thursday or Friday, and one more that he'll need to be present with me to buy.  The first two are surprises, so obviously I'm most excited about them.

I recently made Southern Living's infamous Pumpkin Crisp, and let's just say that it didn't last long.  Ian asked me to please make it at least once again this fall.  Lucky boy, another birthday surprise to add to the list is that it will be taking the place of a traditional birthday cake for him as we celebrate this weekend.

Last fall I posted the recipe on the blog -- but it most definitely deserves an encore post.  Bon appetit!

(and just for the record, when I made it this past time, I used 1 stick of butter instead of 2 and it was just as tasty!)

***

PUMPKIN CRISP

Prep: 15 min.; Bake: 1 hr., 5 min.; Stand: 10 min.

Ingredients

·         1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

·         1 cup evaporated milk

·         1 cup sugar

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1 (18.25-ounce) package butter-flavored yellow cake mix

·         1 cup chopped pecans

·         1 cup butter, melted

·         Whipped cream (optional)

·         Ground nutmeg (optional)

Preparation

Stir together first 5 ingredients.

Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture; sprinkle evenly with pecans.

Drizzle butter evenly over pecans.

Don't judge.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes 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. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

For the printable version of the recipe, just click here.

Ya'll.  This dessert is amazing.  I didn't get a pretty picture of it right out of the oven, but here's a picture of some that remained after we already started into it.

When you are making it, it is going to seem a little odd.  Specifically when you sprinkle the dry cake mix over the liquid ingredients in your 9x13 and it just sits there floating on top.  I checked the recipe over and over to ensure that I wasn't supposed to mix the two together.  But not mixing it is what causes that crunchy goodness.

Chances are, your pantry/fridge already contains sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and butter, so all you need to grab at the store today is a can of pumpkin, two small cans of evaporated milk, the cake mix, and the pecans!  Easy peasy.