Pumpkin Yogurt Parfaits

“Autumn mornings: sunshine and crisp air, birds and calmness, year’s end and day’s beginnings.”  Terri Guillemets

Come fall, entertaining goes into full gear for me. One of my favorite is hosting my fellow art educators  for a working breakfast where we learn about art we will be teaching to elementary aged children later in the year.  These little yogurt parfaits were so easy to throw together overnight and served up a big dose of autumnal flavor.  The gently spiced creamy yogurt topped with the crunchy granola and pomegranate was a delicious and healthy offering of contrasting textures in individual portions for ease of serving.

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I was serving a crowd, but you could reduce the quantities for your needs by mixing 2 parts yogurt to 1 part pumpkin and sweetening and spicing up to taste with maple syrup and pumpkin spice.   To make 15 half cup sevings, I mixed a large container of yogurt(32 oz) with a small can of pumpkin purée(15 oz), seasoned with a heaping tablespoon of pumpkin spice mix and sweetened with a cup of pure maple syrup.  I filled small clear cups about half way with the pumpkin yogurt.  I chilled these overnight and in the morning, I topped each one with some cranberry-coconut granola and sprinkled the top with toasted sunflower seeds and pomegranate arils.  I used store bought granola but you find some of my recipes to make your own here and here.  I waited to top them with the granola until the morning in case the granola lost its crunch from the yogurt’s moisture overnight.

However I can report that the granola in the leftover ones enjoyed a day later (!) were still just fine and are the ones in these photos.  So you could totally make these overnight start to finish.  I used regular yogurt thinking Greek yogurt might be too thick to spoon into small serving dishes but next time I will go Greek since adding the pumpkin and the maple syrup does thin out the yogurt.  These are just sweet enough to serve as a healthy dessert too.  Delicious fall!