Trying out a recipe for a no bake pumpkin mousse

Most days I want a sweet treat and most days I don’t have the patience to make one. On these days I find myself scrolling through Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest looking for something that will hit the spot. This time I stumbled upon this recipe by the toasty kitchen for a pumpkin mousse that promises no baking and only 15 minutes of prep time. Count me in!

I originally missed that this recipe requires a saucepan and a stove so this is significantly less no bake than I was anticipating but I’ve already committed and bought the ingredients. To start you combine the pumpkin puree, heavy cream, brown sugar, and seasonings then stir them together over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it’s fully combined. Then add in the vanilla and set it aside in the fridge (or if you’re impatient like me, the freezer) to cool to room temp. Despite being hot I definitely tasted it and it tasted exactly like the unbaked filling of a pumpkin pie and it was amazing.

When that mixture is almost cool, you move onto the next step and whip the rest of the cream up. Now this recipe seemed like a lot and I halved all of the ingredients but in the previous step it specified how much cream to use in the heated mixture and how much to leave out. If I did this again I would’ve left more out and cooked less to get a better ratio in the halves recipe. Unfortunately I looked at this wimpy amount of cream and thought I could hand whisk it into medium peaks, don’t be like me. Accept that you will need to get out your hand or stand mixer and save yourself the time and arm ache. I eventually got out the hand mixer and got it whipped up.

Now once you have whipped cream and cooled pumpkin mixture ready, you carefully fold them together until combined. Since I didn’t have much whipped cream, this came out softer than I expected and softer than the example pictures looked. I’ll chalk it up to baker error.

That’s it. That’s the recipe. I love a good easy recipe. Now this recipe listed gingersnap cookies as an ingredient to dip in your mousse but I didn’t have any and used graham crackers. This was an amazing vessel to transport the mixture to my mouth and I think a lot of vanilla or spiced cookies would be perfect, maybe even sliced fruits like apples or strawberries. This mousse was delicious, it tasted exactly like pumpkin pie but so much creamier and softer. It was like a melted fluffy pumpkin ice cream.

Now I have to tell you my idea that I had when I first saw this recipe, you can purchase a pack of 6 individual sized graham cracker crusts at most stores and they are an even better vessel for the mousse. It’s like a little no bake pumpkin pie and I highly recommend topping it with cool whip or home made whipped cream. The contrast of the strong pumpkin flavor and the light whipped cream flavor are perfect and combined with the texture of the graham cracker crust, this is the easiest dessert you should make to satisfy that sweet treat craving this fall.