Easy No Bake Pumpkin Fool Dessert Recipe

Sometimes, on weekends, I dress up in fun clothes and fool around – literally – as a jester. During one of these pre-Covid times I performed at a Fall festival celebrating all things fruit. There was a Pumpkin King and Queen and members of the court were all fruit and vegetable puns for example, their guards were called Gourds.

As their jester, I was the Pumpkin Fool – an actual British pumpkin dessert! Now when I need to take a dessert to a pot luck or family gathering (looking at you Thanksgiving, Christmas, or random day of the year) I make a pumpkin fool. 

This sweet little girl was fascinated by the cloth pumpkin I clipped to my dress. I am forever grateful to the photographer that captured this moment! 

A fool (the dessert, not the person. That costume took me four months to make) is a quick and easy pumpkin dessert that is a little like a pumpkin fluff and a little like a pumpkin pudding or parfait. No baking required! Which is fantastic if it is late the night before and you finally remember you have to make a dessert. Not that has ever happened in the Lazy Budget Chef World Headquarters and Thunderdome – except it did.

Traditional fool desserts are a mix of fruit and whipped cream with a few more ingredients thrown in. Unfortunately, I can’t eat dairy. Fortunately, after experimenting with several dairy free whipped cream substitutes (So Delicious Dairy Free CocoWhip – learn about it here, Reddi-whip Non-Dairy Made with Almond Milk Vegan Whipped Topping, and non-dairy almond milk yogurt – you can get almond milk yogurt here) and eating many pumpkin fluff like recipe variations, I can say that you can use all three substitutions to make this dairy free pumpkin fool recipe although the texture may vary depending upon which one you use. CocoWhip makes it pretty thick, Reddi –whip makes it look closest to using dairy whipped cream, and yogurt makes it a less thick but with the added bonus of healthy probiotics. And of course, you can use regular dairy whipped cream if you prefer. Think of this as a no bake choose your adventure pumpkin dessert recipe. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience) Today I am using yogurt in my pumpkin fool.

 

No Bake Dairy Free Pumpkin Fool (Fluff) Dessert Recipe

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You will need the following ingredients:

 one 15 ounce can or 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin puree – you can find pumpkin puree here

24 ounces or 3 cups of yogurt

1/3 cup of confectioners sugar – you can get powdered sugar here

1 teaspoon of vanilla – do your taste buds a favor and use real vanilla extract like this kind

 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice – - I absolutely swear by Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice as the world’s best pumpkin spice. I can’t make anything that compares to it! If you don’t’ have a Trader Joe’s you can buy Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice here

 

Step By Step How to Make this Recipe

 

1. Thoroughly mix together the pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice in a small bowl.

 

2. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix together the yogurt,  powdered sugar, and vanilla.

 

3. Fold the pumpkin puree mixture into the yogurt mixture.

 

How to Fold Cooking and Baking Ingredients (or the Cheese)

 

 

Folding is what bakers and cooks call mixing two ingredient mixtures with two different textures together gently from the bottom of the bowl up. You’ve probably done it a dozen times to gently mix ingredients you don’t want to deflate (like anything involving real whipped cream) and haven’t realized mixing ingredients this way has a fancy name.

1. After pouring the pumpkin puree mixture into the bowl with the yogurt mixture put a spatula (or mixing spoon. I think a silicone spatula like this kind works best) into the bowl until it reaches the bottom of the bowl.

 

2. Holding your spatula at a horizontal angle, gently lift the yogurt mixture from the bottom of the bowl up and over the pumpkin puree mixture. 

Up and over! 

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you have mixed the pumpkin purees and yogurt to your liking.  You can mix them together thoroughly or leave streaks of yogurt in the the mix. It is up to you.

Up and over!

 

4. Pour the pumpkin fool into a serving bowl or dessert dishes, (I’m using cocktail glasses because it looks oh so fancy the easy way!) cover, and refrigerate several hours before serving.

 

Do you like the look? You can get my Carre serving glasses here

 

5. Eat! Enjoy! Repeat!

Looking for more easy pumpkin dessert ideas? Check out the following options - and more! - below! Did you like this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Lazy Budget Chef RSS feed or by subscribing to Lazy Budget Chef by email.