Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

I acquired 2 sugar pumpkins this year and really wanted to do something with them besides have them sit on the counter and get soft.  Plus, I am really trying to reduce the amount of preservatives I take into my body.  Hence the following!


This is a Sugar Pumpkin, or Pie Pumpkin.  Different from the pumpkins you carve, which are Jack o' Lanterns! These are smaller, more sweet and less stringy.




Once I washed the pumpkins, I cut them in half with a serrated knife and scooped out all the seed. I actually keep the seeds, wash them and bake them.  Yummy treat and garnish if I make soup!  Once I had both pumpkins cut and seeded I placed them cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with more foil.  I baked them at 350 for about an hour.  Poke them with a knife, when very tender they are done!  


Once done, I flipped them over to cool quicker.  They are seriously steaming when they come out!  After about 10 minutes I could pick them up. I used a large table spoon and scooped the meat of the pumpkin out and into a mixing bowl.  This was very easy, the meat honestly just falls out.  Super simple. 


This step took a small amount of experimenting on my part.  The website I was looking at to figure this all out suggested to use an immersion blender to puree, I don't have one. I first tried my trusty 3 cup food processor, however, there is very little liquid in the pumpkin, so that didn't work.  I then took out the hand mixer and it worked perfect!  It took about 1 min, and I have this lovely puree!  I am going to let it stand for about 30 minutes and then drain any water that surfaces then package to freeze. My thought is that I want to make some no crust pie next week, so I will measure out the amount for that and mark the bag, then I want to make some soup this winter so I will freeze the rest! 


These are the pumpkin seeds rinsing in salted water before I bake them.  I like the salted water because it doesn't make them too salty.  Sometimes if you sprinkle the salt on before baking, it can be to much. 



Yea for fall!

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