Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Pumpkin Butter and my ridiculous amount of pumpkin puree!

Pumpkin puree and all the ingredients for delicious Pumpkin Butter!

I hate to waste food.

On Saturday night T. went to the store. He came home with a huge pumpkin (one helluva an impulse buy I would say!) for $.99. His idea was that he could open the pumpkin and take the seeds and make some more roasted pumpkin seeds. What to do with the rest of the pumpkin? He wanted to throw it out! Guess what I did ALL day Monday? Roasted and pureed a great big pumpkin.

I had to do this in 3 batches as the pumpkin was soooo big! Here is what I did:

Cleaned out the guts and set them aside.
Cut the pumpkin into chunks and used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin.
Lined a sheet pan with foil and placed as many chunks of pumpkin I could fit.
Placed them in a 400 ° oven (thanks Dharm it works!)
Roasted them until they were fork tender.
Allowed them to cool and then in batches I pureed them in my food processor.
I then placed 3 cups of cooled pumpkin puree in quart Ziploc bags and plopped them in the freezer.

Today I decided to make pumpkin butter out of some of the puree. Turned out wonderful. The girls loved this on some fresh made bread for an afternoon snack!


Pumpkin Butter

Ingredients:

1½ cups (or one 15-oz can) of pumpkin puree
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ cup water or apple juice

Directions:
  1. In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients.
  2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
  3. Reduce heat to low.
  4. Let mixture simmer for approximately 30 minutes to an hour or until it thickens.
  5. Stir frequently.
My house smelled incredible while this was cooking and the girls love it. I will definitely be making this again!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

14 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

This sounds so good slathered on toast Judy:D

Peter M said...

You know your whole neighborhood smelled the roasting pumpkin. The puree will make for nice pies, ravioli, pasta sauces, pumpkin brulee, muffins, soup...go nuts!

Lori said...

I've got a pumpkin in my kitchen that needs roasting right now. I've been looking for a simple pumpkin butter recipe. Thanks!

RecipeGirl said...

I bought it this year but I wish I had done the homemade. It looks wonderful!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Hey Val - That was soooo good slathered on toast!!!

Hey Peter-Are you reading my mind again. I really want to try soup.

Hey lori-Let me know how you liked it!

Hey recipegirl-It was really easy and it's not too late to grab a pumpkin and roast it up!

Sweet Treats by Dani said...

sounds amazing!!!!!

Thistlemoon said...

That looks delicious Judy! I did that with a big pumpkin last week and made soup! :)

JoAnn said...

Mmmm, Peter's right, you can smell it! I made pumpkin soup with a little tabasco and apple chutney for Thanksgiving last year and it was so good, I'm making it again this year! I may even try that pumpkin brulee he mentioned!

Unknown said...

WOW, this sounds amazing. I cannot WAIT to try it. Earlier this fall i picked huge pumpkins from a patch and was coersed into taking one home, we had no idea what to do with it, so we made a dozen batches of pumpkin bars...which were great, but i'm sure the pumpkin butter might have been more appreciated.
Can't wait to try it

carrie said...

anything to do with the guts?

Mike of Mike's Table said...

$0.99? What a steal! This sounds like a delicious way to enjoy it

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Thanks Dani!

Hey Jenn-I have soup in mind as well! DId you freeze the puree or use it all?

Hey JoAnn-Yummm!

Hi Bekah-It's so good smeared on toast!

Hey Ben-Hope you like it Ben!

Sorry Carrie just composting!

Hey Mike-good deal and good food!

Anonymous said...

I went a bit hog wild last growing season and planted copious amounts of various pumpkins/squash. Mother Nature obliged and now thanks to you, I have a new tasty way to enjoy pumpkins all year. umm, I'm thinking the spread is perfect on raisin toast...or in plain yogurt.

Maria said...

I love apple butter, but have never had pumpkin butter. It looks amazing!