Last month I blogged about my family’s little outing to a pumpkin patch. One little bit of info I left out in that post was concerning two cute little pumpkins that I picked up for 50 cents each. I just loved the color of them- a creamy white and orange plus the sign said they were edible which ended up being the driving force behind me buying them. Well, and the fact that they have a rather interesting name!
Over the weekend I finally got around to baking them. I was quite impressed as I was able to get a total of two cups of cooked pumpkin out of those little guys. I of course saved the seeds as well thinking that if would be a lot of fun to try growing them next year.
One cup of pumpkin went straight into my family’s favorite treat for this time of year- pumpkin bread. The other cup went into the freezer to be saved for future use (more pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, soup, butter, pumpkin roll….I could go on and on!)
People are always intrigued when I tell them I cook my own pumpkin for my recipes instead of buying canned and they always end up asking me how I go about doing it so I thought I would share that here today for anyone else that might be interested.
How to Cook a Pumpkin
Start by cutting the pumpkin in half and removing all the seeds and strings. Then place the pumpkins cut side down in a baking dish that has about an inch or so of water in it. Place the dish in an oven that has been set at 350°F. Bake for about an hour to an hour and a half or as long as it takes for the pumpkin to become very soft. You want it to be practically falling apart. Remove from the oven and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Then remove the pulp from the shell (it should scrap off very easily) and place in a food processor and process until you have a nice creamy consistency.
After that it is ready to be used in your recipes or you can freeze it for later like I like to do.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, what an ambitious and nutritious person you are! Puts me to shame with my laziness. I haven’t even baked a pumpkin pie from a can in several years. I’m also impressed with the scenery you have behind those cute pumpkins!
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
I like the way it sounds though. I too am impressed with the scenery in the picture! I have to pinch myself a lot of times in order to make sure I am not dreaming when I look at how beautiful our backyard view is! -Cynthia
I never see my self as an ambitious person!
Those pumpkins are so pretty! I bet the bread came out good. I need to make some for us here. Our yard is so shady here that we really can’t grow too much. My tomatoes went bad before they even ripened. I was desperate and even use aluminum foil to reflect as much sun as I could give the poor guys.
Hi midgeling!
A shady yard does make it hard to grow veggies as they all seem to like sun. But you can grow some really pretty flowers in the shade! In fact sometimes I wish I had shade so I could grow some shade loving plants. -Cynthia
Thanks for visiting my blog today.
Adorable! And sounds super delicious, your bread. I wonder if they will come true from seed or are some kind of funky hybrid? Our pumpkins just went to squirrel snacks and the compost, alas. Seems kinda wasteful; you did much better to bake and eat yours!
Hi Karen,
-Cynthia
I was wondering the exact same thing about them coming up true from seed and did an internet search for them and could find nothing out about them! All I was getting was hits on actual Pokemon- go figure! It’s worth a shot though- growing them next year I mean. If all else fails and they are some strange hybrid I’ll send the offspring to you for your friend the squirrel!
Delicious.. Isn’t pumpkin a super food? I know the bright orange colored squashes and fruits are. gail
Hi Gail,
I’ve heard the same thing too about pumpkin being really good for you. Just like sweet potatoes- which I happen to love baked so we had them with dinner tonight! -Cynthia
What adorable pumpkins, I’m going to have to try to find some of those. I do my own pumpkin too but I can mine. I suppose freezing is better as far as nutrition, guess I never thought of it.
I never even noticed the background of your pumpkin pic, I need to be more appriciative of our NW landscapes I guess!
I’m glad you are feeling better and back in blog land, lol! Kim
Hi Kim,
I am very glad to be feeling better too! Now if I can caught up with all my favorite blogs…. -Cynthia
That’s funny as I have never thought about canning pumpkin before!
Cynthia – those are some beautiful looking pumpkins. I’ve often wondered how a person could make their own pies and such…Thanks for sharing the info!
EG
Hi EG,
-Cynthia
Aren’t they nicest looking pumpkins. Very photogenic too! Your welcome, hope the info was useful.
Hello Cynthia – thank you so much for your kind comments. They were very encouraging to me!
These pumpkins must be the prettiest ones I have ever seen. I love the mottled white and orange skin.
You are very welcome Amy.
I meant every word I said.
I thought the same thing when I purchased those pumpkins. I hope the seed comes up true when I try to grow them next year. -Cynthia
Wow, Cynthia, those look yummy.
Just as an aside, all pumpkins are edible. Granted, some may not have as pungent a flavor, but you can use any of them. (I’ve found the best for recipes are Blue Moon. Yup, they’re blue!) Every year I snatch the ones people throw away after using for Halloween decorations (not the carved! and I swipe the mums they’re chucking, too. lol) and bake with or freeze the meat to use later. I simply mash the meat with a potato masher since I don’t own a food processor, but it still comes out pretty smooth.
Oh, and you might want to change (in your cooking instructions) the inch or so of ‘what’ to ‘water’.
Isn’t this way so much easier than all that slicing, dicing and peeling people feel they have to do?
I so hope those seeds grow well for you! You’ll have to update us all as they grow next year.
I wish you tons of luck with them!
Hi Tina,
I used to just mash them with a potato masher myself until I got my food processor for Christmas one year and found it to be much easier!
Oh, and thanks for the heads up on the typo- don’t know how that one got past my proof reading! -Cynthia
I’ve often thought of this too. I’ll have to write this down in my recipe box. Does it have to be any particular type of pumpkin or can I use any? I’ve thought about using our halloween pumpking before but Cheesehead said we couldn’t eat those. I figure we must be able to eat them somehow, but he and MIL keep insisting that I am wrong. Am I crazy?
Hi Cinj,
As Tina mentioned above all pumpkins are technically edible it’s just that some taste better or have a better texture for eating than others. From what I understand the large Halloween carving pumpkins can be rather tough but I have never tried eating them so I can’t really say. I’ve always just cooked pumpkins that are labeled as being good for eating. I do roast the seeds out of our Halloween carved pumpkins though which are really good! -Cynthia
Thanks for the info, to be honest I’ve always just bought the stuff in a can. I didn’t realize how easy it was to do. Thanks, great post and I love the pumpkins in the first photo. They are very darling!
Your welcome Racquel.
It is very easy actually. The hardest part is removing all the seeds! I hope the seeds come out true when I try to grow them next year as they are the cutest little pumpkins. -Cynthia
Gorgeous looking pumpkins, and a cute size for decorating. Being able to eat them is a nice bonus, too.