Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Souffle

My pumpkin souffle is something that will remind you of a great sweet potato casserole, and you may definitely substitute sweet potato if you would like.

I started making this some years back when my in laws started growing delicious baking pumpkins.
I had used the pumpkins in many of of the usual ways like pumpkin muffins, pies, pumpkin rolls.
You know, mainly in dessert recipes.

I soon started to try and find a few other options for theses delicious sweet pumpkins.
A favorite in my house was sweet potato casserole.
The problem however is that with many of these casseroles I found them to be so sweet they were more like a dessert than a side dish.Another problem with some of these "for us" is the marshmallows.We dont care for marshmallow topped casseroles, and I really like the texture pecans add to the top.
Since I started hosting Thanksgiving at my house many years ago, I searched and played around with many recipes until I came up with a casserole that was still sweet, but not like eating dessert while I was eating turkey and green beans.

Once I started making my sweet potato casserole it soon became a family favorite.
The first time I decided to substitute the pumpkin I kept it a secret from the family, simply because everyone was not a pumpkin fan, so they thought...LOL.

Of course the texture is different when using the pumpkin, but that was really the only difference they noticed. So when asked, I had to spill the beans.No disappointment, only surprised to find they did like pumpkin.
I changed the name from casserole to souffle with this recipe because using the pumpkin really gives this dish a lighter texture than using the sweet potatoes. 

When playing around with this originally I found using brown sugar worked better than using white sugar.The white sugar made this very sweet.By no means is this a low calorie casserole and it still has plenty of brown sugar, but I think if you give it a try you will notice a welcomed difference.
I also played around with some spices in the recipe originally and tried adding cinnamon and nutmeg to the filling like some of my older recipes called for.
I kept feeling like I was eating dessert.So I decided to leave those out and now you get the hint of vanilla and this is also a welcomed difference.

If you chose to use sweet potatoes, follow the recipe exactly and just substitute that one ingredient.

Need a great pumpkin muffin recipe click HERE
Need a recipe for a sweeter candid sweet potato click HERE
Jodies Kitchen Pumpkin Souffle
Filling
4 cups fresh roasted pumpkin pureed or mashed well
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
Topping
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans + 1/4 cup
1/3 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350F
For Filling: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat well.Add filling to a buttered 2 quart casserole dish.For topping: In a separate bowl mix all topping ingredients together except the 1/4 cup nuts, and sprinkle mixture on top of filling.Then sprinkle with the 1/4 cups chopped pecans.Place in oven and bake about 35 minutes or until topping is golden brown and bubbling.