4 cups large day old bread crumbs(French or Italian Bread Best)
1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 cups chopped cooking apple slice thin or seasonal fruits
1 cup of raisins
1/4 lb. Butter and Brown Sugar
Optional: ½ cup of apple cider (this would just give it a little more moisture and taste. I do this.)
1 cup of finely chopped pecans or walnuts
Cut whole in top of pumpkin large enough to stick hand in to clean out seeds and strings. Clean out the seeds and some of the pumpkin(not too deep). The pumpkin which is taken out can be chopped up and put back into the mix. Clean out seeds and save to roast later if you like.
*(Seeds saved to be roasted must be washed and cleaned then dried of water. Mix 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/8 lb. butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper to season and mix with the pumpkin seeds. Spread seasoned seeds onto a cast iron or metal sheet to either bake in the brick oven or fry in a pan until roasted.)
Combine bread crumbs with butter, cinnamon, salt, brown sugar, and toss lightly.
Put layers of bread crumbs, apples, pumpkin, raisins, nuts, butter(cut into patties) and sugar, alternating until pumpkin is filled. Top with Butter and Brown Sugar.
Make a bed of very warm ash to place the pumpkin upon which is close enough to the fire to cook the contents of the pumpkin but not to burn it. Which is sometimes impossible.
Rotate pumpkin 1/4 of a turn every 15 to 20 minutes until apples are tender inside. It will take 2 hours or more for this to cook if you want the apples soft. Be sure to cook the apples in very thin slices if you need for it to cook faster. Make sure you try to keep a very ask under the pumpkin this will help it to cook without burning the flesh of the pumpkin.
These can also be baked in a conventional oven. Place pumpkin on a baking pan after it is stuffed. Bake at 400* for 60-90 minutes. The stuffing will be bubbly when done.
**This recipe is for One Pumpkin only.
The Lighting of the Tunnel programs at Natural Tunnel State Park are set to begin the Friday after Thanksgiving and continue every Friday and Saturday evening until January 1st and 2nd, with the exception of Christmas day and the day after.
