Maple-Pumpkin Einkorn Pudding Cake

Pudding cake performs a bit of old kitchen magic: a simple pumpkin batter rises while the hot maple mixture slips underneath and becomes sauce. Einkorn’s sweet, buttery character belongs here, where tenderness matters more than towering gluten.

Ingredients

Pumpkin cake

• 180 g fresh-milled einkorn flour
• 8 g baking powder
• 3 g fine salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 100 g dark brown sugar
• 240 g pumpkin purée (not pie filling)
• 120 g whole milk
• 50 g unsalted butter, melted
• 5 g vanilla extract

Maple sauce

• 90 g dark brown sugar
• 45 g pure maple syrup
• 300 g very hot water
• 15 g unsalted butter, melted
• Pinch of fine salt

To serve

• Vanilla ice cream or lightly whipped cream, optional

Method

1. Heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Butter a 2½- to 3-quart baking dish and set it on a rimmed sheet pan.
2. Whisk einkorn flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and 100 g brown sugar.
3. In another bowl whisk pumpkin, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients into dry just until combined. Rest 8 minutes, then spread evenly in the prepared dish.
4. Sprinkle the remaining 90 g brown sugar evenly over the batter.
5. Whisk maple syrup, hot water, melted butter, and salt. Slowly pour over the back of a spoon across the batter. Do not stir.
6. Bake 38–42 minutes, until the top is set and deeply golden while the edges bubble with sauce. A tester inserted only into the cake layer should show moist crumbs.
7. Rest 15 minutes. Spoon warm cake into bowls and ladle sauce from beneath over each serving. Add vanilla ice cream if desired.

Make it well

Serve warm for the best sauce. Refrigerate leftovers up to 4 days and reheat individual servings gently; add a spoonful of milk or water if the sauce has thickened.

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