Friday, July 01, 2005

Making your own pumpkin puree

Use this as you would canned pumpkin for pies, doughnuts, muffins or whatever you like!

1 4 pound Sugar Pie or another "pie" type pumpkin
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Split the pumpkin in half and seed it. Remove the stringy fibers by scraping the insides with a metal spoon. Place the two halves cut side down in a roasting pan along with 1 cup water.

Bake the pumpkin until meltingly tender, about 90 minutes. Scoop the flesh out of each pumpkin half. Puree in a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Cool.

3 comments:

  1. A little clarification please. Does the water go into the pumpkin halves, or is it placed along side for steaming purposes?

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  2. Hi Anon -

    In the directions, I've stated that the pumpkin halves go cut side down into the roasting pan. You can either pour the water over the halves or put it in the roasting pan first.

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  3. Hi Joe,
    There are several ways to cook fresh pumpkin, but the easiest method I found was using the microwave. Stab or poke the pumpkin several times with the blade of a sharp knife or fork and place the pumpkin in the microwave for 15 to 20 minutes. To test if the pumpkin is cooked, pierce the skin with a knife or fork (as you would if you were baking a potato).
    Remove the pumpkin from the microwave and allow it to sit until cool enough to handle. Cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds. Scoop out the flesh. Press the flesh through a sieve. Drain the flesh for about 45 minutes. Note: Our pumpkin was about 3 pounds, a little more than enough for one pie.
    It works really nice and saves lots of work.

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