#19 & #20. Pumpkin Cheesecake & Pumpkin Fudge at Urban Eats

Local shout-out: Urban Eats is offering multiple delicious pumpkin-flavored products this year, including pumpkin biscotti and a pumpkin white chocolate mousse parfait, but my two favorites are the pumpkin fudge and the pumpkin cheesecake. 

Urban Eats Pumpkin Cheesecake

For more details, check out my article in the Houston Press. 

#10. Pillsbury Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

Readers of the extensive canon of food writing know that I have an irrational devotion to Pillsbury products due in large part to my fascination with the Dough Boy. I find his pudge, his effeminate giggle, and pigment-less visage, utterly charming.

Thus, it took little convincing for me to sample Pillsbury's limited edition Pumpkin Spice Rolls made with Cinnabon Cinnamon (THAT'S A REGISTERED TRADEMARK, BITCH). Let's forgive Pillsbury for the redundancy that is "Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon" as standard pumpkin spice includes cinnamon.

Pillsbury has an extensive line of refrigerated cinnamon rolls , only some of which are the "Grands!" style, i.e., over-sized. Despite their excessive girth, I was able to eat three in one sitting, but more on that later.  

Although I usually have no trouble wrangling Pillsbury's refrigerated dough products from their paper tube (and who doesn't love that satisfying POP when you crack the sphere against the counter), this particular time so doing proved ridiculously difficult. I nearly ruined half the rolls during the extraction process.

But time in a warm oven tends to heal all wounds with regards to injured baked goods, and fortunately, they emerged relatively unscathed, and more importantly, absolutely delicious. 

Pre-Icing Rolls. In and of themselves wonderful.

Major props to Pillsbury for consistently delivering a mass-market dough with an amazing fluffy, chewy texture and a rich yeasty flavor only enhanced with ample amounts of cinnamon, sugar, and butter. "Pumpkin spice" in the form of nutmeg could be detected in the dough, but strong squash notes come in the thick glaze on hand to adorn the rolls.  Tip: don't wait for the rolls to cool before executing this step as their warmth facilitating spreading the glaze evenly over the half dozen.

I love how commercials advertise these things as suitable for feeding a nuclear family and I could have easily polished off the bunch and had an omelet.

#8. Dreyer's Slow Churned Pumpkin Ice cream

Houston is finally settling into fall with some cool(er) weather...JUST KIDDING! WHY IS IT STILL 90 DEGREES??

Let's try that again: because summer in Houston this year will apparently be lasting through November, I am still actively craving ice cream even though my Halloween decorations have been up for a full two weeks.

The "problem", however, is that I have already moved on to binging on "fun size" Snickers bars I bought in preparation for trick-or-treaters, so I have been trying to balance this influx of calories by eating other desserts in moderation.

Lucky for me I ran into Dreyer's Slow-Churned pumpkin ice cream at Kroger this weekend. For those unfamiliar with the Dreyer's family of products, their "Slow Churned" line has significantly less fat and calories than their regular ice cream.

What's remarkable about Dreyer's "pumpkin patch" is not only its pungent pumpkin flavor, but also its consistently creamy texture.  The latter feature is often lacking in "lite" ice creams. 

Fantastic! Now I can have my candy bars and my triple-scoop ice cream cone, too.