We decided to try out another “Pioneer Woman” recipe. You can pretty much rely on her to deliver something scrumptious and fairly buttery 😉 And, this recipe does not disappoint.

Unintended Short-cut: We  could only find instant pudding in the little country store in our town, so we went with that. On the upside, that substitution allowed us to skip the cooking process. We just mixed the instant pudding with the half-and-half/whipping cream and added the canned pumpkin. The texture seemed just fine and it saved a few steps.

My that homemade graham cracker crust is just delicious!

And, who doesn’t love adorning with crushed grahams?

We probably should have added a dollop of whipped cream on top for the photo-op. Next time, next time.

This scrumptious offering is from the Food Network’s “Pioneer Woman”. The cake is super moist and the cream cheese frosting is divine. The finished product is almost candy-like.

If you are looking for something that comes together quickly but still tastes fantastic, you should give this a try!

FYI – The sheet pan Ree references is 18 x 13 inches. If you don’t have anything that particular size, a 9 x 13 baking dish would work. You’d just need to plan on baking it a bit longer.

Can you say “homemade dough”? Yes, that’s what we are talking about. Not something to do every day but if you have some extra time, say on a rainy weekend, it is worth a go.

Making this recipe required several trips to the store due to lack of planning on the part of said “test kitchen”. I find it frustrating when you think to get the special ingredients but assume the staples are in ready supply back at home, only to find out they are NOT.

Please forgive the missing piece in the back left of this photo. We just couldn’t wait for the camera shot to try a bite. Tasty. Love the pumpkin spice flavor and the gorgeous color!

Okay, we didn’t sacrifice a pumpkin from the patch to make this dessert,  although we COULD have. Yes, went with canned pumpkin from the store. Somewhat embarrassed but sometimes one has to go with what is easy.

Can’t find mascarpone cheese at your grocery?  Neither could we. But, we found good substitute using cream cheease, butter and whipping cream.  What we learned in going with that substitute . . . probably need to blend a bit longer so all the cream cheese is incorporated. We had a few lumps of white cream in our dessert, but can confirm that we didn’t get any complaints at all.