Baking Pumpkins

My mother-in-law took Amelia to the Red Barn Farm for a little Nanny/Amelia date. She came home telling me all about the baby animals they saw and the hayride they went on. She also came home with two pumpkins; one for Amelia, and one for Marinn.

I'm sure these were intended to be for decorating for Halloween, but every time I looked at them sitting on the table I had visions of pumpkin whoopie pies dancing in my head. After about a week of refraining I got Amelia on board with the idea of cooking one up to see how it tastes.

Cooking a pumpkin is really simple! Much like the squash we cook, we simply washed it well, cut it in half and baked it face down on a baking sheet in an oven heated to 350. The only difference is with the pumpkin you scoop out the insides and add a half cup of water to the pan to make sure it doesn't dry out. (I used a melon baller to scoop it out and it made quick work of it.)

Simply bake until soft, about 45 minutes. You should be able to easily push a fork into the meat of the pumpkin. (Time will vary depending on the pumpkin size, however keep in mind that smaller pumpkins are better for eating.) Once it is cooked, remove from pan and allow to cool. Scoop the meat out and puree to use in pumpkin recipes! I found that my puree as a little thinner than the store bought so you may need to adjust your moisture content in some recipes.

Each of our small pumpkins made 3 cups of puree. It can be stored in the fridge up to one week or the freezer for longer storage.

Also, don't throw away the insides you scooped out until you remove the seeds for baking!

For toasted pumpkin seeds rinse them in cold water and soak them in a bowl of salt water over night. Drain the seeds and spread onto a baking sheet and allow to dry. Toss them with a little olive oil and sea salt and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until crispy.

We made some with a little chili seasoning mixed in that were a hit! I also tried soaking the seeds in chai tea (I hate throwing away the tea bags after one use because there is still so much flavor in them, so instead I steeped them again and used them here.) and I tossed them in olive oil and cinnamon sugar. They were a little bitter, however I think adjusting the cinnamon to sugar ratio will solve that problem.


Updated 11/15/2012

 Yay! A fix to the watery puree problem!

My pumpkin bread recipe was an easy fix when it came to the thin puree, simply cut back the water. Whoopie pies however were not so easy. I ended up mixing in an extra 1/2-3/4 cup of flour to get my batter thick enough to bake correctly. After this many years of making them, I have become quite accustom to having them made a certain way so I was less than impressed with the results.

Before going round two with the pumpkins we are preparing for Thanksgiving I decided to hit up the web for some ideas on how to fix the issue with the fresh pumpkin being watery in comparison to the canned. There were a couple of ideas so I did both, which resulted in a much thicker puree.

Fix #1
After baking the pumpkin until soft flip them cut side up and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes. This allows some of the excess moisture needed for the pumpkins to cook evenly to cook off a bit before you puree it.

Fit #2
Place pureed pumpkin into a mesh strainer and allow excess water to drain off. This step took a lifetime, but I ended up with a cup of water drained off of each pumpkin I cooked