As soon as the calendar turns to fall, there is never not a can of pumpkin purée in my pantry. After all, canned pumpkin purée is shelf-stable and can be turned into a trillion recipes. Like the Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake I just developed. Inspired by New York–style crumb cake, it has nearly as much brown sugar streusel as plush pumpkin bread—pure bliss with a cup of coffee or tea. The only downside? To fit just right into an 8″ square pan, you use half a can of pumpkin purée instead of the whole thing.
But a downside can be an upside if you look at it another way. If you have some leftover pumpkin purée in the fridge, lots of our recipes are happy to help out, from fluffy pumpkin pancakes to a real-deal pumpkin spice latte to cozy pumpkin pie. And before you ask: Yes, we have a lot of other pumpkin purée recipes that do use the whole can. And, yes, if you’ve gone the extra mile to make pumpkin purée from fresh pumpkins, you can use that instead, you overachiever. So grab a scarf and let’s take a stroll, shall we?