I love holiday baking, and pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors to add in. I’ve always bought the cans of pumpkin puree’ and it always seems like I end up using half the can (about a cup) and throwing the rest away a week later. Since Halloween is over, the pie pumpkins are on sale at Wal-Mart for twenty-five cents per pound. I bought two for less than two dollars. With them, I made my own puree to freeze for holiday recipes.
Pumpkin Puree’
Ingredients:
2 pie pumpkins (also known as “small pumpkins” or “baking pumpkins”)
water
Method:
Preheat oven to 375.
Remove the top from the pumpkin, like you would if you were carving a jack ‘o lantern. Remove all the seeds from the inside (save them for spicy garlic and parmesan roasted pumpkin seeds!) and cut the pumpkin into quarters. Place in a casserole dish (you may have to do two batches, depending on the size of your casserole) and add water until the pumpkin is about half-covered. Bake for about an hour, or until soft. Allow to cool enough to handle and gently scrape the “meat” away from the skin. Discard pumpkin skin and puree the rest, adding very little water if necessary. Two pumpkins made five cups of puree for me.
To store: Place 1 cup worth of puree in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag and mark the contents and the date. Place in the freezer.
Pumpkin Puree’
Loaded into the freezer!
The Verdict: Well taste-wise, it tastes like pumpkin puree. Good thing because that’s what it is! This was a major savings, seeing as how 1 can is about a buck fifty and has about 1 3/4 cups of puree per can. And I made 5 cups for about the same price. And it was so easy! There is no reason why you should not do this!
