Sex in a Pan is a layered dessert that’s so rich and creamy, you’ll be in love after the first bite. Chocolate Pumpkin Sex in a Pan is a gluten-free, low carb pumpkin recipe to end all pumpkin recipes! An almond flour crust holds layers of pumpkin cheesecake filling, creamy chocolate pudding, and sugar-free whipped topping with shaved chocolate on top.
The pumpkins are coming, the pumpkins are coming! Whoops, too late. The pumpkin recipes are HERE! And if you’re not a pumpkin lover or if you would prefer to not see any pumpkin-related content until at least October, I am sorry. I truly am. But they seem to arrive earlier and earlier every year now.
Even before summer is over, before the kids are back in school, and while you are still embalming yourself with sunscreen every day, your social media feeds begin to clog up with pumpkin recipes. It’s atrocious, it really is. And I blame bloggers. Yes, bloggers! Those damn fools that worship the big orange gourd and can’t even wait until the beginning of September to start cranking out the pumpkin spice this and the pumpkin pie that. Yes, I include myself in that lot of wild-eyed pumpkin addicts. It’s a sickness, it really is. And there is no antidote.
Well, at least I waited until after Labour Day to publish my first pumpkin recipe this year. That’s something, right? And what a recipe it is, with quite the, ahem, suggestive name. Sorry if it offends.
Is Sex in a Pan really the name?
Sex in a Pan is meant simply to be tongue in cheek, but if you don’t like that moniker, there are a few alternative names for this sinfully delicious pumpkin chocolate layered dessert recipe. Like Low Carb Chocolate Pumpkin Lasagna. Or Chocolate Pumpkin Dream Dessert. Or the rather boring but descriptive Pumpkin Chocolate Layered Dessert.
I settled on Sex In A Pan because that’s what a reader called it when she asked me to make something similar. And it reminded me of a dessert a friend made back in high school, although she called hers “Better Than Sex”. Which, being rowdy teenagers, we though was hysterical. It was also delicious!
The high carb version of Sex in a Pan usually has a shortbread-like crust, with layers of vanilla pudding, chocolate pudding and whipped topping. Most of which comes out of a box, of course. But making a low carb layered dessert from scratch is not only healthier, but a lot of fun. And you get to lick the beaters and the bowls of all the various layers. Can’t complain about that!
Healthier Pumpkin Chocolate Desserts
The combination of chocolate and pumpkin can be found in all sorts of gluten-free, sugar-free and low carb dessert recipes. A few of my favorites include:
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Truffles
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Flourless Chocolate Cake Roll (from Cupcakes & Kale Chips)
- Pumpkin Tiramisu
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (from My Gluten-Free Kitchen)
Just be forewarned about one thing. There is absolutely NO WAY to get the first slice of this beauty out of the pan in one piece. You have to resign yourself to sacrificing that one piece in order to get the others out all nicely sliced up. If you happen to be serving to guests, just delicately remove yourself from their view as you cut into it.
Pull out that first mangled, mashed slice of Sex in a Pan in whatever manner you can get it out, and hide it back in the fridge for later. Then you’ll be able to lift the other slices from the bottom and no one will be the wiser. Well, except when you walk back into the dining room with smears of chocolate, pumpkin and whipped cream all over your face…
Did you know I wrote a cookbook? Get it now!
Pumpkin Sex In A Pan Dessert
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans, optional
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Pumpkin Layer:
- 10 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Pudding Layer:
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 & 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 3 tbsp butter in 3 pieces
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Topping:
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 3 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 ounce sugar free dark chocolate
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9x9 inch square baking pan (you can use 8x8 but your crust may take a little longer to bake).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, pecans, and sweetener. Stir in butter until dough begins to clump together. Press firmly and evenly into prepared baking pan.
- Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Let cool.
Pumpkin Layer:
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sweetener together until smooth. Beat in cream, pumpkin puree, spices and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Spread mixture over cooled crust.
Chocolate Pudding Layer:
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine almond milk, whipping cream and sweetener. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sweetener.
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks until smooth. Slowly whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture into the yolks to temper. Then slowly whisk tempered yolks back into saucepan.
- Reduce heat to medium low and sprinkle surface with xanthan gum, whisking vigorously to combine. Whisk in cocoa powder and cook until thickened, about 3 or 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in chopped chopped chocolate and butter until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Let cool 15 minutes and then spread over pumpkin layer. Cover with plastic wrap flush to the surface and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Whipped Cream Topping:
- Beat cream with sweetener and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form. Remove plastic wrap from chocolate layer and spread with whipped cream.
- Dust with cocoa powder (this works best through a fine sieve). Use a vegetable peeler or cheese slicer to shave chocolate over top.
- Chill another hour to help set completely.
Notes
Total fat: 33.79g
Calories from fat: 304
Cholesterol: 134mg
Carbohydrate: 7.63g
Total dietary fiber: 3.05g
Protein: 5.96g
Nutrition
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I adore chocolate and pumpkin together so I just may have to make love to this dessert. I mean, devour…
I haven’t been a successful baker but this looks so good, I think I’m going to give it a shot. However, my family prefers sweet potatoes to pumpkin. Do you think I could sub sweet potato for pumpkin 1:1? Would anything else need to be changed? Thank you. Your blog is inspiring.
I think you could sub it in the exact same amount…however, do keep in mind that sweet potato has more carbs than pumpkin
I’d not considered that, thank you.
Hi Carolyn your desert looks stunning and sounds amazing. If I wanted a different sweetener instead of swerve like honey ,maybe maple syrup or regular sugar. Don’t you think it might work. I know you haven’t tested another source. Hey thank you so much!!.
Oh my oh my I can’t wait to sink into this. I know it will be good as all your recipes are tried and true!! Thank you!
“Best low carb dessert ever.” declared my husband.
We made this last night. Holy cow, this is SO GOOD! Everyone was taking turns licking spoons, and clearly the biggest problem is going to be not eating six pieces at a go… The spicing in the pumpkin layer takes me right back to my high school years in New England! So, so good.
We did find it really quite sweet for our tastes, but that’s just us (we find everything sweet!). Next time we’re going to reduce the sweetener in the chocolate layer by half, and everywhere else by a third.
We don’t have easy access to Swerve in the UK, so we use Sukrin 1:1 (granulated) and Sukrin Icing, which are both erythriol and stevia combinations that work really well for us as direct sugar substitutes. We find they’re an easy swap for Swerve, and have comparable sweetness.
We ended up using Montezuma Organic 73% dark chocolate for the bittersweet chocolate component, as there was nothing around that was completely unsweetened (aka cacao and cocoa butter, and nothing else) and no sugar-free dark chocolate, so our carb content is definitely higher for this and this is undoubtedly why our chocolate layer came out quite sweet compared to the other layers.
When chilled for that final hour after adding the whipped cream layer, it was definitely still oozing everywhere but we couldn’t resist a moment longer. Yum! By this morning, it’s firmed up beautifully.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It’s already a favourite, and I can tell we’re going to be making it all the time. 🙂 If anyone’s thinking of making it and runs into some of the minor things I mentioned, hopefully this comment offers a little bit of guidance. The recipe definitely takes a bit of time and effort but is so, so delicious!
Glad you liked it! It may be that the 73% chocolate made it taste quite a bit sweeter. Or it could be the sukrin. Hard to say!
I’m not even that much of a fan of pumpkin, and yet I think this looks SO GOOD! It totally reminds me of tiramisu, and that’s a good thing. 🙂 Yum!
Thanks, Joan!
This looks amazing!! I can’t wait to try it! I am the only low carber and only dessert lover in my family and I can’t imagine eating this whole thing by myself before it would be past its prime… Any idea of it would freeze OK or should I just stick with a mini batch?
I’d make a mini batch. I don’t think the pudding layer or whipped cream layer would do well with freezing. Should be pretty easy to do 1/2 or 1/3 or even 1/4, if you have a small enough pan.
What can I do if I can’t get powdered sweetener? They don’t seem to sell it anywhere in my city. All I have is granulated erythritol.
Try powdering it in a coffee grinder. Some people have success with that.
Amazon sells this.
Ok van I use in place of swerve? Xylitol or Erithitol? How much?
Erythritol is fine in the same amounts.
Oh.My.Word. You are now my best friend.
I have had this dessert with pistachio and chocolate, but pumpkin?? Yum!
I also didn’t know anyone else who knew what this dessert was! 🙂
Thank you!
Two words: springform pan.
Thanks for the recipe!
Not when you want it to be in squares rather than a circle! I don’t know of any square springforms, although maybe someone makes them.
I believe that King Arthur has a rectangular spring form tart pan that may work for this-
I actually have a 9×13 Springform Pan, I think it was made by Wilton (maybe) and I ordered it on Amazon, it is wonderful!!!
I was going to add PIE PAN.
Hi, I just love your recipes! and I hope in the future that you will have a chocolate or any other flavor low carb turnover recipe and a low carb strudel recipe.
Oh, my! I’ll definitely be making this recipe this autumn. I have a “not low carb” recipe for the vanilla/chocolate version you mentioned. I would love it if you would share that recipe with us one of these days. 🙂
The name of this recipe certainly got my attention!! Rather like a cake recipe called Sin in Your Mouth – just kinda grabs you! If this is as good as that *grin* I’ll be taking this to the family Thanksgiving dinner (but I make have to change the name for the sensitive folks)!!
Well, since my Sweetie is deployed until next April, this is as close to sex as I am getting! Lol!
It especially included my love of chocolate and pumpkin! xoxo
Lol I figured your title was a nod to the hugely popular dessert/cake that was flooding the Net a decade or so ago “Better than Sex”. Given the story about you and your girlfriend, I’m guessing it was around longer than that. 😉 This looks really yummy!
When at the store what am I looking for when you say, unsweetened chocolate & sugar-free choclate. What exactly did you use?
Unsweetened baking chocolate: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H227SY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000H227SY&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20&linkId=AEH4EZPVDF7DIM3L
Dark Sugar-Free Chocolate: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLFH0EG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CLFH0EG&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20&linkId=ZCQJI5NYH2E6LAHH
Well, that is crazy expensive chocolate!! $50 for 3 oz! Yikes! $16.88/oz. Is that some sort of typo? That can’t be real!
If you look a little closer, you see that it’s actually 12×3. 12 bars, 3 ounces each. So although it says it’s $14.99 per ounce, that’s a weird calculation on Amazon. Look at the title…it says: Lily’s Original Dark Chocolate (12×3 OZ) 🙂
Yea, I don’t see it when I click on that link… but that’s OK! I searched for it and found the multi bar packs!
Looking forward to making this for the family!
Thanks!
When I click on that link, I see the one that says 12×3. Weird!
ChocZero 70% Dark Chocolate, Sugar free, Low Carb. No Sugar Alcohol, No Artificial Sweetener, All Natural, Non-GMO – (6 Bags, 60 pieces) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M09Q8DW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_bDOYzb48YKTHZ
I’ll take a huge pan of THAT CRUST. it was always my favorite part of this kind of dessert. pumpkin sounds GOOD.
Well you had me at your title, but the stunning photographs of said pumpkin
p*rn sealed the deal…this recipe to the top of my ‘to do’ list”