This lovely layered dessert is complete with all of the spice and flavours of pumpkin pie, minus the hard work of rolling, crimping and baking. Layers of rum-soaked ladyfingers, spice-infused pumpkin, sweetened whipped cream, crunchy toasted walnuts and white chocolate come together for delicious flavours and perfect textures. Simple to toss together for the everyday but special-occasion-worthy, this showstopper pumpkin dessert is a spectacular recipe to make for Thanksgiving.
This dessert doesn’t stop at the end of pumpkin season. It can easily be made into a springtime treat by folding ½ cup lemon curd into the whipped cream in place of 1½ cups pumpkin puree; and omitting the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Add 1 cup raspberries or blueberries (or a mix) to each layer instead of 1½ walnuts, and you’ve got an entirely new dessert!
ingredients
directions
Chill time is 1 hour.
In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat cream until it holds soft peaks. Slowly add icing sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold in vanilla. Transfer 3 cups of whipped cream mixture into a separate large bowl and fold in pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Reserve pumpkin cream mixture and plain whipped cream mixture.
In a 9-inch trifle dish, arrange one-third of the ladyfingers on the bottom of dish and brush with 1 tbsp of rum. Layer with about a third of the reserved pumpkin cream mixture, ½ cup (one-third) of the walnuts, one-third of the plain whipped cream mixture and ½ cup (one-third) of the white chocolate shavings. Repeat this process twice, finishing with chocolate shavings. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one 1 hour before serving.