Maple Walnut Pumpkin Pie

As soon as Autumn comes around and canned pumpkin hits the shelves I start stocking up. You can't find it any other time of year. So the first shopping trip I saw pumpkin on the shelf I bought a few cans. Tonight I made a variation of traditional pumpkin pie. 

Instead of simple evaporated milk I used sweetened condensed milk. 

Instead of a traditional crust I used graham cracker crusts. 

And to top it off a brown sugar walnut crumble top. 

Yum.

Yum. 

*               *               *

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Walnut Topping:
1 (9 inch) Graham cracker pie crust or unbaked pie shell
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, cinnamon, maple flavoring, ginger, nutmeg and salt; mix well. Pour into pie shell.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 degrees F; continue baking 30 minutes.

In medium mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in nuts.

Remove pie from oven; top evenly with crumb mixture. Return to oven 10 minutes. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store covered in refrigerator.

Confessions of the Over Anxious

My sister's bridal shower is just days away (well a week away) and we're going full force on finalizing the menu. So far I have settled on two cupcakes - Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Lemon filled Angel food cupcakes...but I just haven't been 100% happy with having only two options. I've been searching for a third. A non-chocolate and non-fruit cupcake. 

A few weeks ago I came across a Cinnamon Maple French Toast Cupcake on the Cupcake Blog. However, they just show pictures (no recipes) - so I Googled to see what I could find. I did find a number of websites (surprisingly many with either cream cheese frosting or incorporated bacon into the mix somehow). Needless to say I just wasn't all that excited.

After browsing a few recipes I thought that it seemed simple enough - basically a cinnamon spice cake and a maple extract infused buttercream and we'd be good....wrong. 

Last night I was a little over anxious to try them out (remember I only have a week until the party). I used a box instead of from scratch (and it was a little too over spiced) and didn't have maple extract so I used a little syrup instead. As of last night they were very yummy but super sticky. I stuck them in the fridge hoping they'd firm up some....we'll see what happens.

Sadness.