Homemade Pumpkin Purée $1/can

Why on earth would you want to make your own pumpkin purée? Maybe your last name is Ingalls-Wilder. Maybe you need an activity to break up the monotony of homemade laundry soap and butter churning. Or maybe you just want to be more awesome.

Buy a pie pumpkin at the store or the pumpkin patch. Pie pumpkins are not decorative. They are grown for eating and are pretty small as far as pumpkins go. They are really smooth and bigger than Magic 8 balls but smaller than volleyballs. Does that help? Mine were 75 cents/pound and I bought 5 for $5.40.

Wash your pumpkin off and stab it with a knife. Just one stab will do. No need to reenact Psycho. The slit will let steam escape. Pumpkins are hard to cut in half and I, for one, do not own a cleaver or an axe. I also don't want carpal tunnel from kitchen duty. Steaming your pumpkin a few minutes right off the bat will make it easier to work with.

Place your nicely stabbed pie pumpkin in the microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes. Remove carefully with hot pads.

Cut your pumpkin in half. There will be a bunch of stringy goo and seeds inside. Save the seeds if you want to roast them later. Scoop out the strings and goo with a spoon. I use a grapefruit spoon because it has little teeth.

 

Put your pumpkin halves cut-side down in a microwave-safe glass dish and add 1" of water. Microwave on HIGH for 6 minutes. *Most pumpkins cook in 12 minutes or less. If you have already done the first 3 minutes plus 6 in the water and the flesh isn't soft do it 3 more minutes in the water dish. You can tell the flesh is cooked because you can poke a fork it in and it's soft.*

 

Carefully remove from the microwave again (hot pads!) and put each half cut-side up on a plate. Let cool for a minute or two. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon and purée in a food processor or blender while still hot. If your flesh has cooled all the way you'll need to add a few tablespoons of hot water to achieve a purée.

 

Freeze your purée however you like. I do mine in two increments: 15 ounce bags (the same as a can of pumpkin) and 1/4 c. chunks. I weigh the 15 ounce portions and dump them in freezer bags. I put my 1/4 c. portions in silicone muffin cups, individually freeze them, and them pop a dozen of them in a gallon-size freezer bags. I use the large portions for baking cupcakes and the small chunks for adding to pancake batter. Don't have silicone muffin cups? Write them on your Christmas list ASAP and in the meantime put the same portion in a sandwich baggie to freeze. Once thawed you can snip the corner off and squeeze the pumpkin into your recipe like you are using a pastry bag.

My five pumpkins yielded one 15-ounce "can", 1 cup set aside for this morning's pancakes, and 12 1/4 c. chunks. So if you want at least a can's worth buy 2 pumpkins!

If you like pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes that are not too sweet or overly-moist *ew* then Michelle's recipe is for you. Plus her frosting has almond extract in it. Fallelujah!

This is the pancake recipe we like. It uses four 1/4 c. chunks. Do use whole or evap milk in this recipe!

There you go. One newly acquired life skill...check.