Recently, Mimi blogged about pumpkin mousse, a decadent mousse with mascarpone. I liked the idea of pumpkin mousse, and made my own version, leaving out the mascarpone. The result is feathery light with a good balance between the pumpkin flavor and the spices, and only mildly sweet. I’ve only used a bit of sugar, which you could replace by stevia to make this even lower in calories. This is a great dessert if you want something that is light yet festive. Thank you for the inspiration, Mimi!
In this recipe I’ve used raw eggs. It is best to pasteurize them first. If you have a sous-vide, that can easily be done by cooking them for 2 hours at 55C/131F.
Ingredients
For 2 to 3 servings
250 grams (1 cup) pumpkin puree
3 eggs, separated
35 grams (3 Tbsp) sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Instructions
To make your own pumpkin puree, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake the pumpkin on a baking sheet, cut side down with some water, for 45 to 60 minutes at 190C/375F. The pumpkin is done when you can easily pierce it with a fork. Scoop out the pumpkin flesh onto a clean kitchen towel…
…and squeeze out excess liquid into a saucepan.
Reduce the liquid to obtain pumpkin syrup.
Puree the pumpkin flesh and put it in a bowl.
Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, and 1/8 tsp nutmeg.
Add 3 egg yolks and 3 Tbsp of sugar.
Whisk to mix.
Whip 3 egg whites with a pinch of salt until they resemble snow.
Fold the whipped egg whites into the pumpkin mixture in three additions…
…working gently from the bottom up with a silicone spatula…
…to keep the mixture airy.
Serve at once, garnished with the pumpkin syrup you made by reducing the liquid squeezed out of the pumpkin.
This mousse isn’t very stable, so if you wait too long before serving it will separate.
Flashback
Pan ducale means “duke’s bread” and is an original recipe from the Italian region of Abbruzzo. The original recipe from 1352 of eggs, sugar, flour, almonds and candied citron was later enriched with dark chocolate.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Love this! Especially the pumpkin syrup! Thanks for the shout out!
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Thank you, even if I don’t know the pumpkin syrup. Do you think I can pastorize eggs without a sous-vide machine? I have the same cups as you do, mine are green 😉
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You can do it in a pan with water and a thermometer, using the time and temperature from my post about food safety. It is OK it the temperature goes up and down a bit, as long as you keep it below 60C/140F, as otherwise the egg will cook. At 59C it will take about 20 minutes. Or you can run the risk, there is not a high risk that eggs have salmonella.
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Thank you. Well, italian eggs are safe and, as a Country, we are self sufficient with eggs
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Hi Paola, the pumpkin syrup is made by reducing the liquid squeezed out of the pumpkin. I have clarified this in the post now.
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Thank you 🙂
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So light and fluffy!
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This looks great! We will have to try it. Don’t know where to find pumpkin syrup but maybe it’s somewhere on this side of the pond. Hope so.
Reminds me of pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream (this time year in Texas we are still eating ice cream).
BTW, if one decides to pasteurize eggs, I recommend doing several at once (maybe a dozen+). They seem to work in all recipes. Be sure to follow Stefan’s advice if you do not use sous vide. It may also be possible to purchase them somewhere. I’ve seen them a few times.
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Hi Cecil, the pumpkin syrup is made by reducing the juices squeezed out of the pumpkin. I have clarified this now in the post. I have made pumpkin pie but no pumpkin ice cream yet. As part of a dessert we eat ice cream year-round.
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This is beautiful!
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A new recipe to add to our holiday baking list! Yummy!
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Very creative, a little too elaborate to make on the fly with 2 toddlers, but this will go on my “try” list for sure.
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Wonderful recipe, Stefan, and it would make a great dessert for our Thanksgiving feast. Love the idea of making pumpkin syrup, too. As for the eggs, pasteurized eggs are readily available here and I buy them regualarly. I guess you’ll just have to find a better reason to get me to ” go sous-vide. 😀
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