If the thought of eating pumpkin anything right now makes you want to hurl one through the window… don’t! Just bookmark this and read it when you feel a little less… orange.
One of the benefits of traveling to Thanksgiving dinner and sharing the load (my assignment was green bean casserole and a nut/candy appetizer mix) is that I wasn’t completely burned out on cooking by Friday. Good thing, because right before we left my parents’ place Thursday night mom said “So, do you want your pumpkins back?”
She had borrowed what was left of our Mulch Pit Mystery pumpkins for table decorations, and since I’m a “waste not want not” kind of girl… we were up to our elbows in pumpkin seeds, guts and puree on Friday.
Lucky for me, I had plenty of help. *cough*
While the older two diligently flipped slippery seeds into the bowl, I continued to cut and then scrape whatever remained when they were finished… in between chasing the toddler with a washcloth to remove the slime from her exploring hands and feet (how did that happen?) of course.
Check this out! We received two grapefruit spoons for a wedding shower 10 years ago (don’t ask). We don’t eat grapefruit, and until Friday I had no viable reason to even own those spoons… but they make wonderful pumpkin gutters! I’m keepin’ ‘em!
Following the advice of The Nourishing Gourmet, I placed the pumpkin halves skin up on baking sheets and baked them without water for about an hour at 350 degrees. (flipped them over to cool)
After scooping the cooked pulp from the shell, I blended it with my hand mixer (since my blender is out of commission.) I didn’t have to add water, drain water, nothing!
Here you have it — 16 cups of fresh pumpkin puree for the freezer. Oh, don’t forget about the seeds! I dried and roasted all of the pumpkin seeds, about 5 cups worth. That ought to last me at least a few days hours!
To roast the seeds I first dried them on sheet cake pans for a couple of days, stirring twice a day. This morning I put them all in the same pan, tossed them with olive oil, seasoned salt and garlic powder, and baked them in a 250 degree oven for probably close to 3 hours.
Hold it right there! Don’t blame me if your seeds burn! I had a lot of seeds in my pan, and I probably used a tad too much oil, so my seeds took a long time to get crisp. If you don’t have 5 cups of seeds in one pan just start with an hour, stir, give a taste, and if they’re not crisp try again… about 20-30 minutes at a time. Store in an airtight container.
Ahhh… it felt good to get that done. Long live the pumpkin fetish (and thank heavens for my freezer — the thought of eating more pumpkin right now makes me feel a bit orange, too)!
There’s lots of kitchen talk going on at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Kitchen Tip Tuesday, and check out Tackle it Tuesday while you’re at it!
Wow, that is a lot a work and a great outcome.
We recently “rescued” a large, orange guy (a 21 pounder!) from rotting away to nothing. I have you beat by just a little, as we scooped out about 18 cups worth! Phew! Yeah, I won’t be able to stand seeing anything pumpkin for quite a while…
I don’t have any grapefruit spoons, so I’ll have to look into that for next time. Thanks for the tip!
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I didn’t get a chance to do this this year.
I’ve done it a few tiems in the past years with great results.
I don’t know if you like pumpkin butter or not, but it makes a great little homemade present for Christmas, and you can give it in recycled baby food jars!
The more I use the internet the more I understand that good sites are few and far between. This site is a gem shining out among the garbage. thank you so much, Paula Coates
Is there a particular type of pumpkin that has to be used for baking, soups, etc? I’ve heard talk of “pie pumpkins” but am not sure how they differ from the regular jack-o-lantern variety. I have several small pumpkins from our CSA. We were going to use them for decorations, but with two boys and a dog, they ended up on the floor, stems broken off, leaking juice – so now I think I have to do something else with them. Can I bake and puree these for later use? I have no idea if they are “pie pumpkins” or just an ordinary variety. Since you seem to know pumpkin, I’m wondering what you think.
@Jennifer, Honestly — I have no idea what variety of pumpkins grew in our garden! I just know that they were fairly small and made excellent pumpkin puree. I think the “pie pumpkins” are a bit sweeter, and the big jack-o-lanterns are stringier… I would definitely bake your pumpkins and puree the pulp. I just bagged mine and froze it.