Procedure1 Peel a piece of pumpkin (like the ones you can get in Indian grocery stores) and chop it into cubes. Cook it using a pressure cooker (add water just enough to cover the pumpkin pieces and leave it for 1 whistle or in a microwave oven. Drain the water and blend the cooked pieces into a smooth puree when it is cool enough. Measure 1 and 1/2 cups of this puree. (Check My Notes for store bought pumpkin puree).

2 Empty the entire tin of evaporated milk in a medium size sauce pan. Heat it on low-medium. Once the skin starts forming in the milk; add the pumpkin puree and mix it well. Heat this mixture for another 7-8 minutes. Do not be tempted to increase the heat because chances are that the milk will get burnt and will stick to the bottom of the vessel giving an unpleasant taste later.

3 Add a tin of condensed milk and the MTR powder to the above and let this mixture remain on stove for another 5 minutes. This should also be done on low heat. Remove the pan from heat.

4 In a small cup add the saffron strands and couple drops of the hot milk; leave it for a while. After 2-3 minutes, dissolve the saffron in the milk with the tip of your fingers. Add this to the pumpkin mixture.

5 Now add the cardamom powder, salt and nuts and mix well; let it cool completely. You can drink this as kheer/payasam or you can freeze it as kulfis. If you decide to drink it, I would suggest adding some more milk because the kheer will be very sweet.

6 Once it is cold, pour the mixture in the molds and freeze it. I froze it overnight but 7-8 hours should be enough I guess.

7 To serve it you can either dip it in hot water for just a few seconds so unmolding will be easy. (I got this idea from Jyoti). If you prefer eating straight from the cup, then remove the cup from the freezer and put it in the fridge 10-12 minutes before serving and it reaches the perfect ice cream texture.

Taste The taste is unbelievably good and nobody can guess that it has generous quantity of pumpkin in it. Just make sure that you leave it at room temperature or in the fridge 10 minutes before serving so that it has the right texture; neither hard nor too soft. I think I will reduce the quantity of condensed milk the next time around. 3/4th of the tin instead of the entire tin. If you have a very sweet tooth then go ahead and use it fully.

My Notes1 I tried to make the pumpkin kheer using canned pumpkin puree, but the milk curdled once I added the puree to the hot milk. So I tried this kulfi recipe without heating the milk; but somehow it did not taste good or may be I did not like it. I feel that the store bought puree has an unpleasant odor. The pumpkin puree prepared at home does not have this smell, moreover we cook it the second time in the milk to ward off any raw smell. So try your luck with the canned pumpkin and let me know how it goes.

2 Instead of evaporated milk you can use about 3 cups of regular milk but boil it until it reduces to about 1 and 1/2 cups.

3 I used the Dole fruit cups as kulfi molds. This fits inside the muffin pan perfectly, so moving it to the freezer and handling is easier. So place one cup in each muffin tin and fill it with the kheer. Close it with another baking sheet to avoid freezer burns. If you don’t have a muffin tin, arrange the cups on a tray/baking sheet, fill it and close it with another tray.

4 MTR Badam Feast is available in Indian grocery stores. It’s nothing but a mix of powdered almonds, sugar, cardamom, saffron and milk solids. It’s added with warm/cold milk to make almond drink. This mix is available in other brands too. If you don’t get it, that’s okay. Simply add some more saffron and cardamom powder.

Step-by-Step Procedure

My Notes Add your choice of nut butter and chopped nuts. You can also go for fat free condensed milk.

Procedure1 Grease 8-inch square baking pan or line with foil.

2 In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the sweetened milk and chocolate; cook and stir just until boiling. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes or until mixture thickens.

3 Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

4 Stir in 2 cups of cookie crumbs. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs and sprinkles or nuts; press down gently with a spatula.

5 Cover and chill 4 hours or until firm. Cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator.

My Notes1 The original recipe mentioned either greasing the pan or lining it with aluminum foil, so I went with the latter thinking it would make it easy to handle. I guess I should have even greased the foil lightly to lift the squares easily because the brownies were sticking to the foil and it was difficult (but manageable) to take it out. I think using wax paper instead of aluminum foil would have been a better option.

Also using color sprinkles was a very bad idea because everything was falling down. Either I did not press it down properly before putting it in the fridge or I should have used mini M&M’s (my kitchen would have been less messy) as given in the recipe or should have used the sprinkles after cutting the brownies into squares.

2 If you are not able to find ready to use cookie crumbs, I think using powdered graham crackers (chocolate flavor) will also be good.

3 I prepared it in the night before going to bed and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

Updates: The brownies tend to stick to the surface, so even while storing them in the fridge keep it on a wax paper. When eaten straight from the fridge the brownies tend to be hard so take the brownies out of the fridge about 5-10 minutes before serving and it has the exact texture of baked brownies.