How To Cook a Fresh Pumpkin and Make Pumpkin Butter

I buy pumpkins every year to decorate for fall and just hate the idea of them going to waste so I have to save a least one and bake it off for pumpkin puree.  Thought I would share how you bake a pumpkin and then use it for baking.  I’m sharing a pumpkin butter you can make with it once you have baked it.

Last year I blogged days and days of pumpkin recipes if you wish to go back and pull some more recipes you can use the pumpkin in. 

Smaller pumpkins work best. Leave the peel on and remove it once the pumpkin was cooked.  This gives the pumpkin even more flavor. Cut the pumpkin into small pieces.  Roast the pumpkin in a 350 degree oven until it is fork tender. When it came out of the oven, it is drier and had released some liquid, however it looked more like a dark syrup than water.

At this point separated the pumpkin from the peel with a spoon and mashed the meat in the food processor. This time the mass was not watery at all and it demanded no straining.

Save a pumpkin’s life and use it in your baking. 

Pumpkin Butter

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

Simmer everything in a pot until most of the liquid has evaporated and the sauce has thickened.  Store in mason jars. 

To serve put on a great artisan bread, a warm biscuit, a bagel or crackers.  Think I might have to make some Texas Road House biscuits.  Might mix this with a little butter and make it a real pumpkin butter and put it on warm biscuits.  Talked myself into it.  I'll have to do that in the near future.

Can you smell the house?  It will smell like heaven. 

Have a great day, save a pumpkin, be happy and may God bless you and yours.