2 Ways to Utilize Your Halloween Pumpkin for Baking

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So jack’o’lanterns are nice and all, but what do you do when Halloween is over and you have a pumpkin just sitting on your front porch? Well, assuming you used Natalie’s idea and you painted your pumpkin rather than carving it, you can easily roast your pumpkin and have fresh pumpkin puree for all of your fall cooking and baking endeavors.

I can’t believe that I’m in my *late* 30’s and have never roasted a pumpkin. I guess I thought that it would be difficult, and have relied on canned pumpkin for anything that I might need it for. Now that I’ve roasted a pumpkin I may never purchase another can of puree again, because it’s THAT easy.

How to Roast Your Pumpkin for Puree

  • Begin with a smaller pumpkin weighing less than 10 pounds.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Using a large knife, lop the top off. Then quarter your pumpkin lengthwise, and continue to cut the pumpkin into more manageable pieces.
  • Once you’ve gotten your pieces into easily manageable pieces, scrape the guts and seeds out of them. (You can toast the seeds for a snack!)
  • Place your pumpkin pieces on a sturdy baking sheet. I used my Pampered Chef large bar pan that I use for absolutely everything. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender.
  • After 45 minutes, remove your pumpkin from the oven and let it cool until it’s manageable to handle.
  • Using a spoon or whatever utensil you have handy, scrape the flesh from the skin. (It’s really easy to do that at this point!)
  • Put the flesh into a bowl, or a mixer bowl, or a food processor and by whatever means necessary, make the puree smooth. I used a potato masher and got it to the consistency that I wanted.

At this point, you’ve got pumpkin puree, and you can use it however you’d use the canned pumpkin. Wouldn’t it be awesome to show up at the in-law’s Thanksgiving dinner with pies made from pumpkin you roasted yourself?

Gail’s Pumpkin Bread

We made pumpkin bread with two cups of the puree and I froze the rest in 1 cup increments. I can’t believe how simple it was to roast our pumpkin!

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs, well beaten
  • 3 cups of sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1 can pumpkin (15 oz) (I used 2 cups of my fresh pumpkin puree.)
  • 3 ½ cups plain flour
  • 1 ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp soda
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp clove

Directions:

  • Mix together oil, sugar, eggs, water and pumpkin.
  • Sift together dry ingredients and add to mixture. Mix well.
  • Pour into 3 well-greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Other than bread, muffins, and pies, what kinds of things do you make with pumpkin?

2 COMMENTS

  1. […] Now that it is officially pumpkin season, I can’t wait to go back to some of the Midlands most popular pumpkin patches and enjoy all the fun they have to offer with my daughter and family. To help you on your quest for the perfect jack-o-lantern, here’s a list of some of our favorite patches across the Columbia area! (And once pumpkin season is over, check out these ways you can use your pumpkin for baking!) […]

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