French Fridays with Dorie: Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans

Since I first saw the list of October recipes for French Fridays with Dorie, I have been eagerly anticipating the day when I would make these pumpkin and Gorgonzola flans.  I love pumpkin (especially in savory dishes) and over the past few months I have developed a blue cheese obsession, so this seemed like an ideal dish.  Unfortunately, these flans seem to have suffered from my own overblown expectations because I just did not love them.  The Gorgonzola and walnuts were delicious, but the pumpkin custard was overly eggy and, for me, it lacked flavor.  

Raising my expectations too high was not the only thing that I did to sabotage this dish.  Because the cheese was quite salty I gave the filling a very conservative pinch of salt, which resulted in the bland custard.  Also, I used four 8 ounce ramekins instead of six 6 ounce and reduced the cheese slightly, which left a higher ration of custard to topping. I am being negative about these flans, but I have to say that they were not bad, I just wouldn't make them again without some serious tweaking.  I do like the combination of pumpkin and blue cheese, but I think I would prefer it in a different format.  I am thinking along the lines of pasta tossed with chunks of roasted pumpkin and a blue cheese sauce with some walnuts for crunch, or maybe a pumpkin and Gorgonzola galette.

Oh yes, I am definitely on to something here.

As always, you can check over here to see what everyone made this week and, if you haven't yet, you should pick up Around my French Table (and join in on our cooking fun).