Do you buy pumpkins to decorate in the fall, but aren’t interested in carving them? What do you do with them? Throw them in the compost pile, pitch them in the garbage, or make Homemade Pumpkin Puree? You can also make Homemade Pumpkin Butter and Pumpkin Spice Cake.
I’m typically more of the paper pumpkin decorating type, but this year was a little different. I actually carved a cute little pumpkin before Halloween this year and tonight I cooked a huge pumpkin to make Homemade Pumpkin Puree. It was extremely easy, which really surprised me. Then again, maybe it was the Good Cook Pumpkin Scoop.
The Good Cook Pumpkin Scoop is available at Walmart and is AWESOME if you scoop or scrape the innards out of any baked fruit or vegetable. Thankfully my friend Becky at Week99er shared her directions with me, so I was able to easily bake my pumpkin, and create my own Homemade Pumpkin Puree in just over an hour and a half. But don’t stress, there’s only about ten minutes worth of work in all of that time. Most of the time was spent baking the pumpkin!
I was a little worried though when I realized just HOW BIG my pumpkin was and what I would cook it in. Thankfully, I received this fabulous Turkey Roasting Pan from Good Cook. While it didn’t get a workout with the 25 lb. turkey that it’s made to hold and cook, I figure that size wise it must have been pretty darn close. Just a note of warning though, make sure that you have the oven racks set at the proper height to accommodate a big fat bird or pumpkin! Interested in winning one of these awesome pans? Make sure to read all the way to the bottom!
Want a sneak peak of the Pumpkin Spice Cake that I made using my Homemade Pumpkin Puree? It will be posted later this afternoon. 😉
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: Varies depending on pumpkin size
- Pumpkin
- Preheat oven to 350*
- Wash the exterior of the pumpkin.
- Remove stem if desired.
- Cut pumpkin in half.
- Scrape out the seeds and stringy insides.
- Place pumpkin in roasting pan, cut side down.
- Bake for an hour to ninety minutes until pumpkin is soft when pushed on. The color will become absolutely beautiful!
- Remove from oven.
- Use kitchen towel or pot holder to flip pumpkin to cut side.
- Use pumpkin scraper to remove and chop pumpkin from skin.
- Use a knife or spoon to remove pumpkin, if needed.
- Pumpkin can also be pureed using food processor or blender.
- Pack unused pumpkin in container sizes equal to needed amount for your pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin puree can also be canned in glass jars, if that's something you're familiar with.
- Fresh pumpkin puree may not need as much liquid when used in recipes compared to canned pumpkin.
I mentioned a giveaway for the Turkey Roasting Pan from Good Cook, didn’t I? Well, there’s so much more available in this awesome giveaway! Take a look at the awesome Thanksgiving Basket that’s available for THREE lucky winners! Want to find out how to win? Just go to the The Ultimate Thanksgiving Twitter Party for all the details.
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