Pumpkin Bread Pudding and Pumpkin Cheesecake

Fist off let me say that these two recipes do not encourage "eating for a healthier life", but it's the holidays, give me a break here...I could not decide if I wanted to put both of these recipes into one post or not, but due to lack of time (and internet connection) these past two weeks with the in-laws, I decided to just put them together since it has been so long since the last post. Some people associate pumpkin with Thanksgiving, and therefore do not use it after that day, but my friends, I am here to tell you that, in fact, pumpkin is perfect for even December. Both of these recipes are delicious. I am a little obsessed with pumpkin recipes, but these are two of my favorites. 

The pumpkin cheesecake recipe is from food network, and I came up with the bread pudding. The bread pudding is not like your typical soggy pudding. In fact, if you like it soggy then you will not like this recipe. The top layer gets nice and crispy almost french toast like. Delicious! I made a few changes to the food network recipe, and for the pictures I used a mini cheesecake pan, but the link below is for a normal springform pan. So go ahead and enjoy you some pumpkin this December!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

This recipe is super easy, and  good way to use up some left over bread.

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie pice

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

6 cups of day old bread slices or cubes (I used day old baguette)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick butter melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl toss bread with melted butter. In another bowl, whisk the rest of the ingredients together. Toss into the bread bowl until thoroughly mixed. Pour into a greased casserole dish, and let sit 15-30 minutes. Toss the bread again right before you put it into the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

For this recipe I used about 1/2 of the butter they called for the crust, and also used a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of crushed gingersnaps & graham crackers. 

Recipe can be found HERE