When I was a young child, my favorite pie was pumpkin pie. For some reason, I referred to said pie as "buttabutt". I distinctly remember my Aunt Marion baking this pie, specifically her removing it from the oven, the filling looked so shiny and beautiful golden brown, the smell was fantastic, the cooling period was torture.
I took over the pumpkin pie baking duties as a teen. I always despised making the crust, so I'd often go with store bought. I used the recipe on the can of "Libby's Pumpkin Puree" with fantastic results.
At some point in adulthood, I decided to ditch the can and make pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin and always make my crust from scratch. This is by far the easiest way that I have found to process a whole pumpkin and use all that the pumpkin has to offer, flesh, seeds and even pumpkin juice!
This recipe uses a pie pumpkin. You can tell the difference between a pumpkin whose intended use is decoration and one whose intended use is eating. Pie pumpkins are generally smaller and a deeper orange color than carvers. They will also be labelled as such in the store or at the market. I use this method for cooking any kind of winter squash that I plan to use in puree form or spaghetti squash.
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| The Pumpkin |
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| Playing with the pumpkin, one last time |
Fresh Pumpkin Puree
1 large or 2 small pie pumpkins
Butter and seasoning for the seeds
Pumpkin Pie Spice for the syrup
Part I-Cooking the Pumpkin
1. Preheat your oven to 400℉and move rack to lowest position.
2. Thoroughly scrub the outside of your pumpkin using a vegetable brush, soap and water. Dry thoroughly.
3. Place pumpkin or squash on a rimmed baking sheet, the squash will release a lot of juice while roasting, so a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan is essential.
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| To make the best use of oven heat and space, I also roasted a spaghetti squash for dinner. |
4. Move squash and pan to the oven and roast until the flesh easily gives way to gentle pressure. This will take an hour or longer. The pumpkin I used for writing this recipe was 6.5 pounds and took 1.5 hours to cook. It was a chilly day so I was grateful to have the oven warming up the house with the smell of roasting pumpkin.
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| Notice the squishiness of the squash. |
5. Once the pumpkin is tender, turn off the oven. You may let the pumpkin cool in the oven. It will take some time to cool enough so that you may handle it.
6. Once it's cool enough to handle, cut the pumpkin in half.
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| The seeds are delicious too. |
Scrape out the seeds and membrane holding the seeds and transfer to a large bowl.
Scoop out the flesh into a food processor. Process in batches until you have a smooth puree.
7. Transfer the puree to a strainer or colander set over a bowl and let drain for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Reserve the juice if you wish to make Pumpkin Syrup.
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| Holding period before meeting the food processor. |
Use the strained puree just as you would canned puree. My 6.5 pound pumpkin yielded 3.5 cups of puree. If you have extra, no worries! Pumpkin freezes wonderfully. I divide mine between ice cube trays to use for smoothies and quart size freezer bags in two cups portions.
Part II-Roasting Those Delicious Seeds
1. Fill the bowl with seeds and membranes with cool water. Take a handful of seeds and rub between your hands to separate from the membrane. Continue until you have cleaned all the seeds. Drain and transfer seeds to a rimmed baking sheet. Press dry with a kitchen towel. At this point, you may leave the seeds overnight to ensure they are very dry.
2. Preheat oven to 275 ℉.
3. Combine 2 tablespoons of melted butter with 2 teaspoons of the spice mix of your choice. I used 2 teaspoons curry powder and ½ teaspoon of salt for a curry roasted pumpkin seeds.
4. Toss the butter and spice mixture with the seeds until they are well coated.
5. Transfer baking sheet to the oven and roast for about 30 minutes, until seeds are golden brown and crunchy. You will want to check the seeds at 10 minutes intervals and stir to prevent burning from hot spots in the oven.
Part III-Pumpkin Syrup
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| Pumpkin Syrup |
1. Collect the juice strained from the puree and add to a saucepan with 1-2 Tablespoons of sugar and ¼-½ teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. The variation in measurement is due to the inability to know exactly how much juice your pumpkin will yield. I used 2 Tablespoons of sugar and ½ teaspoon of spice to flavor 4 cups of juice, which made ¾ cups of syrup.
2. Bring juice to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce to low and simmer until juice is reduced by ½-¾, depending on how you like your syrup.
Use the syrup to flavor coffee by adding 1 to 2 teaspoons to your cup. You may also make flavored whipped cream, soda, mixed drinks, anything you'd like, really!
How did I use my puree?
I made:
Sweet Potato, Apple and Pumpkin Soup garnished with Curried Pumpkin Seeds
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| A nice variation from the berry-banana blend |
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