Recipe: Pumpkin brownies

It was Eid al-Adha last Monday, and yesterday some of the Malaysian students in the Netherlands came to our lil city for celebration. We booked the bbq pit on campus, and brought lots of food (like always), and the guys started grilling the delicious sate and other marinated meat.

The food was awesome (thanks guys!) I even prepared brownies and pumpkin brownies for dessert. I had the pumpkin puree stored in the freezer, and I thought this would be the perfect time to use it since fall is coming *wohoo*!

The texture is like a mix of pie and brownies. It is dense and creamy. I love the touch of the spices in it along with the sourish taste of the cream cheese.

Choose the pumpkin variety suitable for baking. The one usually sold in the grocery store in the Netherlands is the variety suitable for making soup (less sweet, more watery). I bought several pumpkin varieties last year from a nearby farm, and I kept the leftover baked flesh in the freezer in case I feel like eating pumpkin pie one day haha.

Pumpkin brownies
[click for printable version]

Ingredients

800 g pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar*
5 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cream
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sunflower oil

For the cream cheese marble:
300 g cream cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar*

*adjust the sugar based on your liking

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Line a rectangular baking pan with a baking paper, set aside. 
2. Combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, eggs, the spices and salt in a large bowl and by using the hand blender, mix until smooth. 
3. Mix the flour, cream, baking powder and oil with the rest of the ingredient. Mix using a rubber spatula and spread the batter into the baking pan.
4. Combine the cream cheese, egg, and sugar in another small bowl. Put a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture onto the batter, and by using the back of a spoon, spread the cream cheese with the batter to get the marbling effect.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies come out clean.