Pumpkin.
It’s like, the blog world’s most popular topic at the moment. And it has every right to be. We all spend the winter, spring, and summer waiting for it to be an appropriate time to break out that can of pumpkin to bake and cook with. (Ok, well, technically anytime is an appropriate time for pumpkin, am I right?)
Anyway, It’s one of my goals this month to make my own pumpkin puree, and I’m happy to say that I finally accomplished it! Hooray!
And It’s actually really, really simple. It’s so simple, I might buy up a whole bunch of pie pumpkins while they’re on sale, roast them, make puree, and freeze it so I can have it forever. (Or, for the next month, because it won’t last very long.)
Here’s how you do it:
You’ll need: A pie pumpkin. Not the kind of pumpkin you carve and decorate for halloween, an actual pie pumpkin from the produce section of your grocery store. They’re small, and their flesh is much sweeter than a regular pumpkin.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
You’ll need to cut the pumpkin in half. It’s either more difficult than it looks, or I’m really weak. (My bet’s on the latter.) I used a serrated bread knife, it seemed to work better for this than a smooth chef’s knife.
Now, you’ve got to scoop all the guts out. You can save the seeds and roast them. Just get the goo off them, rinse them off, and let them dry first. To scoop them out I used a grapefruit spoon. I think thats what it’s called. It’s got little spikes on the edge of it. It’s like a baby spark.
Once that’s done, you want to put it in a casserole or oven dish (I used a 9×13 pan) and fill it with a few cups of water, so it’s about 1/4 to 1/3 full.
Cover it with a lid or tin foil, and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until it’s tender when you poke it with a fork.
Then, all you have to do is scoop it out of the shell and put it in a blender and puree it. (Or, if you’re lazy like me and don’t want to have to wash the blender/food processor when you’re done with it, just mush it to death with a fork. Same results.) You can wait till it’s cool to scoop it out if you don’t want to burn your fingers.
And tah-dah! Delicious pumpkin puree! I can’t wait to use this! I’ve already made pumpkin pie french toast, (Recipe coming soon) and I’ve fallen in love. We’re eloping next weekend. You might think I’m kidding but I’m not. It’s that serious.
Yummy. You get quite a few cups with each pumpkin, so don’t let the small size of it fool you.
Have you ever made your own pumpkin puree? What’s your favorite thing to do with pumpkin? I need some good idea’s, I’ve got pumpkin coming out of my ears over here!
Yum! I’ve never tried making my own! I love pumpkin though. It’s so VERY fall-ish. haha
This looks so good!! I’ve never made my own puree but now I’m going to have to try since it looks so simple
I’ll have to try making my own – I just made a chili with pumpkin puree that turned out amazing – you can’t really taste the pumpkin, but it gives the chili a nice texture – well, I call it a choup because I made it too spicy to start and had to add chicken broth and more pumpkin – so its a cross between a chili and a soup = choup!
http://mybizzykitchen.com/2011/09/14/i-ran-for-skippy/
Pumpkin in chili, what a great idea!
thats so awesome liz!! i never thought to make my own pumpkin puree! nicely done
I love pumpkin with EVERYTHING. It’s one of my favorites.
Pumpkin challah! It’s great in any kind of bread, actually.
I’ve never made my own pumpkin puree, but I really need to! It doesn’t look that hard, and I’m sure it tastes much better than canned
<3 <3
Love anything pumpkin. Will give this a try – and thanks for the tip on avoiding the ones used for decorations.