Pumpkin Pie-Croissant Pudding (Canada)

This recipe came from the October issue of Food and Wine magazine. Chefs at Montreal's Joe Beef restaurant use leftover croissants to make their signature fall dessert. The recipe calls for pumpkin pie filling, two cups of heavy cream, one cup of sugar and seven eggs, not to mention all those croissants. Wow, that's a lot of calories. I lightened the caloric load by using egg substitute. But still it would have to be a once-in-a-while treat. For instance, whenever I'm in Quebec.

The recipe calls for soaking the raisins in rye whiskey, but we only had Irish whiskey in the house. I don't think anyone could tell. Andrew, the Hub, work pal Chris Morrison of Discovery Creative Chili Cookoff fame and I were the testers on this. A quote from Chris:  Best served warm, with either vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream, the pudding was very enjoyable. Its mix of croissants, pumpkin and overall sweetness held together nicely while accompanied by a sprinkling of raisins. The texture was unique (especially given time to set) in that it was more firm than expected. This created more of a cake-like consistency. Personally, I found that to be very appealing. Overall, a very satisfying and delectable dessert good enough to cause small feuds/brawls within the family for that sacred last piece.