Hey Pumpkin! Iowa And Illinois Have Picked Their Favorite Pumpkin Foods

It's the flavor of the season: pumpkin.

When you think of all the flavors of fall, you probably think of caramel apples, cinnamon, s'mores, and of course, pumpkin.

While it's not my ideal fall flavor, you can't deny the chokehold pumpkin has on fall baking and menus, not the least of which is Starbucks' PSL. You can use it in savory or sweet dishes and based on the latest data, it looks like most of the country is leaning towards the second option.

Data from Google Trends looked at each state's favorite pumpkin food by comparing search results from the last year. Nationally, the main categories were these:

• pumpkin bread
• pumpkin muffins
• pumpkin cookies
• pumpkin soup
• pumpkin seeds
• pumpkin pie
• pumpkin spice latte

Obviously there's a lot more you can do with pumpkin but those are some of the main ones.

Iowa

Iowa, along with most of the country, favors pumpkin bread. It's a sweet, quick bread that can be used with multiple ingredients like different kinds of spices or nuts like walnuts or raisins.

Pumpkin bread actually stemmed from Native Americans, who used pumpkin as a food staple. Over the 20th century, it became less like bread and more like cake, like it is today.

Illinois

Meanwhile, like 4 other states, Illinois is partial to pumpkin cookies. Nationally, pumpkin cookies ranked right behind pumpkin muffins.

Pumpkin spice stuff in the U.S. really began to grow in popularity in the 1930's. It didn't take long for pumpkin sweets like cookies and muffins to make their way into cookbooks.

The country's favorite savory pumpkin dish is pumpkin soup. Pumpkin seeds (often roasted with spices and salt) were the overall favorite pumpkin snack in 3 states.

Interestingly, pumpkin spices lattes weren't that popular, reaching only 1 state as the favorite.