While pumpkin is delicious in many forms—filled with cheese, melted into pumpkin pasta—pumpkin desserts are where the winter squash really shines. The ingredient is so synonymous with fall that we’re even drawn to the flavors associated with it when pumpkin isn’t even present. (Why else do you think pumpkin pie spice, a combination of warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger, has found its way into everything from Oreos to ice cream?) It just makes us humans feel good. It makes us feel cozy. Frankly, it makes us feel cradled in a warm embrace.
Okay, enough about our feelings. Here are our best pumpkin desserts.