“What the heck do you do with this stuff…and do you want to make something with it?,” asked my neighbor Winnie, handing me a jar of pumpkin butter.  It had been a party favor from a recent shower she’d attended.  Since neither Winnie nor her husband cook a lot, much less bake, the pumpkin butter was destined to gather dust in the pantry…and eventually chucked out with the garbage.  “Bet you can come up with something yummy,” she said brightly.

I’d heard of the Loveless Cafe.  It’s a Nashville institution, famous for its down home Southern cooking.  Their biscuits are legendary.  Wouldn’t be too much of a challenge to make something delicious with the already stellar pumpkin butter.  The possibilities were endless, so the question was how do I narrow down the choices?

We’ve only just dived headlong into “pumpkin spice season” so I was hesitant to guzzle the pumpkin spice latte so to speak.  Maybe I could use it as a pastry or cake filling?  The Loveless Cafe pumpkin butter had a lovely delicate pumpkin flavor, not heavily spiced and not too sweet.  Yet the texture was on the runny side, which meant that I’d have to bind it with something much thicker to give it structure. The answer was cream cheese.  It was neutral enough in flavor to allow the pumpkin to still shine through.  Plus, I just happened to have an unopened package in the frig.  I’m a firm believer in using what I have on hand. Incidentally, I also found a little leftover miso caramel paste from the apple pie project.

Into the food processor went 3/4 c.. pumpkin butter, 8 oz. room temperature cream cheese, 2 T. miso caramel (warmed), and 1 T. cornstarch, blitzed until smooth and creamy.

I popped it into the frig to firm up again while I made a batch of my flaky pie dough–same as the one I used for the apple pie–the only addition being 1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice. Once the dough had rested and chilled firm enough, I divided the dough in half and set about rolling out each half to 1/8″ thickness, then cutting it into roughly 8 rectangles for pop tarts.  As luck would have it, I made just enough filling to pipe onto just the right number of rectangles. Normally I would cut out squares of dough for both top and bottom layers, but I went the quick and easy route this time, opting to encase the filling by folding over the dough and only crimping three sides instead of four.

The method for sealing and crimping the edges is the same.  Lightly brush one side with egg wash, carefully press the edges together to seal, then crimp with a fork.  I brushed the surface with egg wash, cut slits for venting, then sprinkled tops liberally with raw sugar.  Refrigerate or freeze the formed pop tarts to firm up the dough before baking in a pre-heated 400°F oven for 18-20 mins. or until golden brown, rotating sheet pans once halfway through baking.

The result was a golden pop tart with a buttery, flaky crust, slightly crunchy from the raw sugar topping and creamy sweet pumpkin interior—a delectable way to welcome pumpkin (spice) season!

Now all I need is a nice hot cup of tea (no, not pumpkin spice latte!), kick back and watch this