Make Your Own Pumpkin Puree & A Recipe From Practical Princess Diaries

My best friend, Bethany, is a wise and really amazing woman. She inspires me and teaches me all sorts of things every time I'm around her. That's why I love her so much. She is one of those one-in-a-million people and I was lucky enough to find her. Since we've been gardening together this summer, I've learned even more. One of those things just so happens to be how to purée a pumpkin.

The pumpkins in our garden have began to pop up and when she saw this, she told me how easy it was to make pumpkin purée. So, that next day I decided to give it a try. I can't believe how easy it is. Yes, it gets messy. However, it's worth the mess. Overall, the whole process took about two hours, but it resulted in a lot of pumpkin puree that can be refrigerated for quick use or frozen for a later Thanksgiving recipe. I used a medium sized pumpkin (about 5 pounds) for my first attempt and I ended up having three one cup freezer bags, two 2 cup freezer containers, and about a half jar that I put in my refrigerator to use this week for some recipes.

So, here's Bethany's pumpkin purée instructions. If you get a moment, leave a comment on this post about how amazing your best friend is.

Pumpkin Purée

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F)
Wash your pumpkin and be sure to remove all of that dirt.
Remove the stem from the pumpkin and then slice the pumpkin in half, lengthwise. Clean the guts of the pumpkin out making sure to remove all of those stringy things that are a big pain in the butt. I used an ice cream scooper to clean the pumpkin out. You can set the seeds aside and bake them for a yummy snack later.  

I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper and then placed the cleaned pumpkin, sliced side down, onto the baking sheet. I don't have a big baking sheet, so I ended up having to do two rounds of pumpkin baking. If you have a half sheet you can probably place both pumpkin halves in at once. 

Roast the pumpkin for 35-50 minutes. You're going to want to be able to stick a fork or knife into the pumpkin easily. When the pumpkin is nice and tender, remove it from the oven and place the sheet with the pumpkin on a cooling rack for an hour or so. 

Once the pumpkin is cooled, begin removing the pumpkin skin. You can scoop the flesh out using a spoon or carve the skin off of the flesh. Whichever way works for you. 

After you have all of the pumpkin flesh removed, place it in your food processor for 3-5 minutes until the purée is nice and smooth. I don't have a food processor, but I do have a Ninja Ultima blender. It did an amazing job at puréeing the pumpkin. I only had to do two batches in that powerful little sucker in order to get all of the pumpkin processed. Love that blender!

When you have it all pureed, place it into freezer bags or containers. Be sure to label them with the date. If you're using freezer bags, make sure to get as much air out as possible and then place the bags flat onto a cookie sheet. Then place the cookie sheet in the freezer until the pumpkin is frozen. Once frozen, they should last about three to four months. 

You may be wondering what to use this pumpkin puree for? My friend Christie, over at Practical Princess Diaries , has an amazing recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins! Oh yes indeed! Doesn't that sound good? Once you finish making this puree, jump on over to her page and get that mouthwatering recipe.

While you're at it, follow Christie and me on Twitter for more recipes, and other useful ideas.

I hope you find this useful and that you can save some money by doing this. No use buying cans of the stuff when you can make it this easily at home. 

As always, thanks for reading.

Take care,
NB