Katalina's pumpkin apple butter pancake balls
Food + Drink

Try These 3 Made-in-Ohio Pumpkin Foods

Jeni’s Pumpkin Cake Roll Ice Cream, Taft Brewing Co.’s Frisch’s Pumpkin Pie Ale and Katalina’s Pumpkin Apple Butter? We’d like all of the above, please. 

Try This: Katalina’s Pancake Balls with Pumpkin Apple Butter
The quirky cafe with locations in Columbus’ Harrison West and Clintonville neighborhoods is known for its eclectic decor and menu inspired by both Latin and Southern flavors. Its standout dish is its pancake balls: pillowy round pancakes filled with Nutella, dulce de leche or pumpkin apple butter. Cooper’s Mill in Bucyrus makes the special pumpkin apple butter for the cafe. “It reminds me of back when I was growing up, everyone canned and used everything,” says Katalina’s Cafe owner Kathleen Day. “That’s what I try to do at Katalina’s: make as much from scratch as possible.” Diners who fall in love with the fruit butter can purchase a jar or two at the cafe to take home. katalinas.com

Jeni's Ice Cream pumpkin cake roll pint (photo courtesy of Jeni's Ice Cream)
Try This: Jeni’s Pumpkin Cake Roll Ice Cream
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams rolls with the seasons, offering white chocolate peppermint around the holidays and strawberry buttermilk in the summer. The surest sign of fall is its Pumpkin Cake Roll, a swirl of pumpkin and sweet cream cheese ice creams with Jeni’s unique spice blend, brown sugar and vanilla cake. “Pumpkins represent a change in season,” says Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of the famous ice cream brand. “There are so many really beautiful things you can do with pumpkin. We ask, ‘What can we do that will make people so happy that it’s pumpkin season?’ ” Britton Bauer experimented with different pumpkin ice creams over the years, and she loves how the flavor recalls fall treats growing up. “It’s very nostalgic, it’s exactly what you want.” jenis.com

Taft's Brewing Co. pumpkin pie ale (photo courtesy of Taft's Brewing Co.)
Try This: Taft’s Brewing Co.’s Frisch’s Pumpkin Pie Ale
If you’ve been pining for a slice of pumpkin pie in a pint glass, you’ve found it. Cincinnati’s Taft’s Brewing Co. first teamed with Frisch’s in autumn of 2020 to present the southwest Ohio-based restaurant chain’s pumpkin pie as a beer, bringing together cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg with vanilla for a creamy finish. The brewery suggests serving it at home with a honey and cinnamon sugar rim, and the beer goes well with earthy flavors like butternut squash or beef stew. “We wanted to collaborate with something iconically Cincinnati, and Frisch’s pumpkin pie is a Thanksgiving staple,” explains brewery marketing and event coordinator Tori Zamrik. “We reached out, and the rest is history.” taftsbeer.com