My good friend Annie tipped me off that there was a roasted pumpkin fondue recipe in the holiday special issue of Gourmet magazine. I bought it right away because how could I not make a pumpkin fondue?
I did change their recipe some. They wanted you to layer the bread inside, but I just couldn’t do that. It would be more like a pudding than a fondue and although I like my puddings I’m a dunker when it comes to fondue.
To start, preheat your oven to 450.
As in almost any real pumpkin recipe, first you gotta scrape out that pumpkin.
I halved their recipe since there are just two of us. This meant I used a pie pumpkin instead of a 7 pound pumpkin.
Season the inside of the pumpkin with a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. I used garlic salt, but either will work.
In a small bowl whisk together a 3/4 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup veggie broth, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
In another bowl or big measuring cup, mix 1 1/4 cups shredded Gruyere cheese and 1 1/4 cups shredded Emmental cheese.
Add the cheese and cream mixture to the pumpkin.
You’ll notice I lined my cookie sheet with foil– you’ll want to do that. As the pumpkin bakes it collapses and the cheese oozes out some.
Put the lid back on the pumpkin and coat the out side with a little oil, maybe a tablespoon or less.
Before putting the pumpkin in the oven, you may need to lower the rack down or remove on entirely. Pie pumpkins are always taller than I think!
Let it bake for 1 to 1 and a half hours. The pumpkin will brown and the sides will get soft (see the spillage note earlier).
And then it’s done!
Our dipping spread. We added pretzel bread into the mix.
We decided to play games while eating fondue. I guess you could say we fun-dued it.
As you eat the cheese, bits of pumpkin come off the sides.
It’s not overwhelmingly pumpkin, but very subtle. It was so good, we ate every last dip of it!
Like a fondue miracle, there’s no pot to clean!
Hearty Eaters 