Pumpkin-pecan crumble

Here's another delicious dessert recipe from my sister-in-law Kristen. I tried it at her house over the holidays and have been wanting to make it since.

Kristen has a way with desserts; try her pear custard bars and famous sugar cookies! (Some day, I'll also post her sour cream apple pie.)

This recipe came from Kristen's mother-in-law, who got it from her sister. It calls for a box of yellow cake mix, but I decided to try a vanilla cake mix from Namaste Foods. It's got just a few ingredients -- including sweet brown rice flour and evaporated cane juice -- so that was more appealing to me than a box of cake that has tons of hard-to-pronounce ingredients and food coloring that clearly can't be good for you.

It tasted just as good as the recipe with yellow cake.

Pumpkin-pecan crumble (makes one 13-by-9-inch pan)

3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup would also do; this is a very sweet treat)

1-1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I used a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg)

2 eggs

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin

1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

1 bag of gluten-free vanilla cake mix (the size that makes two 9-inch cake layers) OR 1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1.) Combine sugar, spices, egg,s pumpkin, and evaporated milk. Stir together.

2.) Pour into ungreased 13-by-9-inch pan.

3.) Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture.

4.) Drizzle butter on top, and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

5.) Cook 40-50 minutes, until golden brown on top, at 350 degrees. (Mine took the whole 50 minutes.)

6.) Chill, cut, and serve with whipped cream.

Food fact: The health benefits of eating walnuts is pretty commonly known, but did you know that pecans also offer plenty of good stuff?

According to the National Pecan Shellers Association, pecans are high in anti-oxidants.

"New research, published in the August 2006 issue of Nutrition Research, shows that adding just a handful of pecans to your diet each day may help inhibit unwanted oxidation of blood lipids, thus helping prevent coronary heart disease," reads the association's Web site.

The sweet nuts also are dense with nutrients and can help lower cholesterol.

So bring on that pecan pie!