Pumpkin Pie Rugelach for Thanksgivukkah

I may be the last one to jump on the Thanksgivukkah train but there was no way it was going to pull out of the station without me aboard. What a fun challenge to create a hybrid Thanksgiving/Channukah treat. Since the first night of Channukah falls on Thanksgiving, these will be on the table for the first and last time for 77,000 years!  A once in a lifetime blog post opportunity.

I make my pumpkin pies with homemade puree but I was fresh out and at this time in the season there was not a sugar pumpkin left in sight anywhere.  So I caved and bought the can. And you know what? It wasn’t so bad.

Like Thanksgivukkah, this dessert is a mish-mash of a few recipes together. I adapted a rugelach dough recipe from King Arthur Flour. The filling was from McCormick Gourmet, also adapted. Then I threw some butter brown sugar and chopped pepitas in a frying pan and sprinkled them in before I rolled up the rugelach.

The result was good and tasty, but not like wow. In hindsight, I would have put some sugar in the dough and maybe drizzled some chocolate glaze over the finished product. The flavor got better when they sat a few days. However, they are not too sweet and will add a good balance to my Thanksgiving dessert table.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers and Happy Channukah to all the Jewish ones!

For the pumpkin pie spice dough:

I used the crust from this recipe, swapped out whole wheat flour for white and added a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice to the mix.

For the pumpkin pie filling:
(barely adapted from this recipe from McCormick Gourmet)

Ingredients:

• 1+1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon clove
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon  ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
• 1 -15 ounce can of pumpkin
• 1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Spray or grease a deep ceramic pie dish
• Whisk the spices together in a small bowl and set aside.
• Mix together the pumpkin and milk.
• Add in the eggs and vanilla.
• Add in the spices and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into the prepared pie dish.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until solid.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely.

For the candied pepitas:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pepitas roughly chopped

Directions:

• Melt the butter in a frying pan.
• Add brown sugar and dissolve completely.
• Add pepitas and stir often until coated and slightly hardened.
• Remove from heat and let cool completely.

To Make the Rugelach:

• Make the dough.
• While dough, chilling make the pumpkin filling and candied pepitas.
• Follow the instruction in the King Arthur recipe to assemble and bake the rugelach.