Pumpkin Puree

Homemade pumpkin purée is easy to make. There are many varieties of pumpkins that are offered. Many are grown for decoration (Halloween jack-o’-lanterns, etc.) others for food (pie pumpkins). I find that a good pie pumpkin will produce a better purée – leave decorative pumpkins as decorations. This last year I grew Burpee “early sweet sugar pie” pumpkin. It made an excellent Pumpkin Puree which we used for pies, breads and soups.

With that being said and done, many recipes for pumpkins start with a purée so here is a recipe for pureeing a pumpkin.

Ingredients

1 whole pie pumpkin

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a sharp knife, cut the pumpkin into several large pieces. I like to remove the seeds and “guts” but you don’t have to – baking makes it easy to cut the seeds out when cooled down (if you take the seeds now you have the choice to either keep them for next season’s planting stock or for roasting). Place the pieces on a baking sheet cut-side down. Bake for 30 minutes to an hour. You’ll know the pumpkin is ready when its flesh pierces – just like a baked potato.

Allow the pumpkin pieces to cool, at this time if you did not remove the seeds cut them out now (set them aside for roasting). Scrape the remaining flesh away from the rind. Purée the flesh in a blender, a food processor, a food mill or as I like a hand masher, add water if necessary to help it blend.

A 2 1/2-pound pumpkin yields about 2 cups of purée, or enough for one standard 9-inch pie.

You can freeze excess pumpkin purée for future use.

Look at other pumpkin recipes https://traderscreek.com/recipes/recipe-index/