Doctoring up Dr. Oetker

October 30, 2010 6:11 AM

I have to make a Halloween party dessert on a tight schedule. In my cabinet I have a box of Dr. Oetker organic blondie mix and a can of organic pumpkin. According to the box directions you're supposed to add 1/4 C. melted butter and 2 eggs to the blondie mix. Can I add some of the canned pumpkin? About how much, do you think? How much of the butter or eggs would I leave out to make it still hold together with the fats, but not too gloppy with the added pumpkin?
posted by keener_sounds to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

Best answer: I suggest you look at this recipe for pumpkin crack and go from there. I've made it, it's fantastic.
posted by genmonster at 6:21 AM on October 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It's pretty common in vegan* cooking to replace eggs with some kind of vegetable or fruit puree. Each egg would be replaced with around 2 tablespoons of the canned pumpkin. So long as the mix doesn't depend on a really high proportion of eggs, this should work fine.

*This is also common in recipes for banana/pumpkin/zucchini bread.
posted by beerbajay at 6:27 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: IDK, you might want to leave in an egg white or two for stabilization.
posted by elizardbits at 6:32 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: You might want to try swirling the pumpkin in - essentially what you do is mix up the brownie mix as directed, and then mix up a second batter using pumpkin, and swirl the two together. I've been meaning to make these for a while myself.
posted by pemberkins at 8:07 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: You're likely to end up with something quite moist, almost custard-y, if you add the pumpkin to the baking mix. So I would make a crust -- preferably with graham cracker or other cookie crumbs, but just plain short crust, pressed into the pan, if you don't have that -- pre-bake it, and then mix up the batter with the pumpkin, plus pumpkin-pie spices and maybe a 1/2-cup extra sugar to balance the pumpkin, and smooth it over the pre-baked crust and bake for maybe half an hour. Call it pumpkin bars.
posted by palliser at 8:44 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: The reviews for this recipe are mixed as to whether or not to add eggs. You could certainly get by without adding eggs but two eggs wouldn't hurt, either. No oil needed.
posted by wallaby at 8:57 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: leaving the eggs in will help keep it from being mushy. If there was any other liquid in the mix, reduce it. Make the mix, if it totals, say, 3 cups, add 1 1/2 cup pumpkin. I'd eyeball it, but that ratio seems like it would work. To enhance the pumpkin taste, add pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. or so.
posted by theora55 at 9:36 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: Look at this for a recipe that's about 4 c. dry to a can of pumpkin. Pretty cakey, but if you proportion it down to however much dry mix you've got, at least you'd be pretty sure it would hold together.
posted by palliser at 10:13 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: I use Betty Crocker's cake mixes (the 18.25oz box) to one can of pure pumpkin (14oz) and two tablespoons of water to make really yummy mini cupcakes. Your box of blondie mix is smaller, so I'd use less of the pumpkin, but otherwise no eggs or oil.


Good luck.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 11:37 AM on October 30, 2010

Best answer: When America's Test Kitchen makes desserts with canned pumpkin, they cook it down to get some of the excess water out before adding it to a batter. Just cook in a saucepan over medium heat until it thickens up a bit. Your cake shouldn't have that heavy, "wet" consistency that other pumpkin cakes tend to have. Good luck!
posted by killy willy at 2:04 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: These are all great suggestions -- thank you! I'm going to use a variety of these suggestions when I make it tonight including reducing the pumpkin and substituting out one egg. Thanks everyone.
posted by keener_sounds at 3:33 PM on October 30, 2010