Live Smarter

Pumpkin Puree Pictorial

camera 330

 

 Fresh pumpkin might seem a little daunting. It sure did for me at first. It is a little time consuming, and pretty messy – but once you try some fresh pumpkin bread or pumpkin pancakes – you’ll be hooked.

You do have to do a bunch in September and October while pumpkins are available, but its really cool to pull fresh pumpkin out of your freezer and whip up some pumpkin bread in January.

You want to use baking pumpkins, or sugar pumpkins. Put them on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Put them in a preheated 350 (F) oven and go do something else for 90 minutes. Just come back and turn the cookie sheet a couple of times.

camera 331

They’ll come out looking something like this. Let them cool a bit before trying to handle them.

camera 332

The peel will come off easily.

camera 334

 Clean out the gunk with a spoon and separate the seeds.

camera 335

 

Clean the seeds and put them on paper towels to dry.

 

camera 336

 Line a colander with cheese cloth or paper towel. Put the pumpkin meat in the colander and let it drain for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, take the dry pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet and put in a 250 F. oven for about an hour.

When you take the seeds out of the oven, lightly salt them and put into a tightly sealed container.

Put the pumpkin meat into the blender and puree for about a minute.

Pack the pumpkin in 1 cup portions and put in the freezer – except for one portion.

 

pumpkin bread

 Make a loaf of pumpkin bread for breakfast tomorrow 😉

Look in the Pumpkin Patch for more great pumpkin recipes!

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *