Fresh Pumpkin

In case I haven’t reminded you enough, I’ll remind you again that I absolutely love this time of year.  Fall in Arizona is a little different than fall in Nebraska where seasons are pretty definite, but I still love it; the smells, the deep oranges and reds, the cool weather, the delicious foods, and the pumpkins!   Pumpkins have begun popping up in stores during the past few weeks and last weekend I decided to buy a few baking pumpkins.  Then I bought a few for decorating the porch…and then we saw a HUGE one at Sam’s club that was reasonably priced so now my house is full of pumpkins!  I think I have a pumpkin addiction.

I love making pumpkin goodies and I’m always on the lookout for new things.  For the longest time I only knew of the pumpkin that came out of a can to make these wonderful concoctions, however last year I took the leap and tried using fresh pumpkin.  I haven’t gone back to the canned stuff since.  It takes a little time, but I promise you it’s worth it, and you’ll save some money too since those little baking pumpkins are cheaper than the canned stuff (unless you shop at Whole Foods, because they were selling the baking pumpkins for around $12!). 

When you choose your pumpkin you’ll want to select one between 2 and 4 lbs.  Any bigger than 5 lbs. and the pulp becomes too stringy and the outcome isn't as good.  Because of this, I only use the baking pumpkins

You’ll need your pumpkin(s), a cutting board, sharp knife, baking sheet, spoon, and an oven.  If you don’t have an oven I can’t help you, although I have been told you can also do this in a crockpot.

VERY CAREFULLY, cut your pumpkin in half.  



You can remove the stem if you want; I have before but these stems didn't want to come off so I just left them.  Inside you have that wonderful stringy, seedy goodness.  Baked pumpkin seeds are amazing and I’ll share how I bake those with you tomorrow (spoiler alert: it’s crazy easy).  If you plan to bake the seeds you’ll need to separate the seeds from the pulp.   Scoop out all the stringy innards.  I used a combo of a metal tablespoon and a knife to cut the tough spots. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.  You are welcome to skip this step, but if you’re lazy like me you’ll be happy later that you just need to throw the foil away instead of having to scrub the leftovers off your pan.  You’re welcome.

Place your pumpkin cut side down on the foil.  I have no idea where I picked up this next part or if it’s even necessary, but then I cover the pumpkins in foil.  It makes me laugh every time.  It’s like making foil snowmen or something.  Or a foil bra.  Either way it’s funny stuff.

Bake at 350 degrees between 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on the size of your pumpkins and how many you threw in the oven.  Your pumpkins are done when they are tender inside.  You’ll be scraping the pulp out so if it’s not tender enough to scrape out, then it’s not done yet.

Let the pumpkins cool and scrape out the insides.  You’ll be left with a thin shell.  I've heard of people pureeing the pulp so it looks more like the canned stuff, but I never have and I've never heard any complaints about my pumpkin goodies.

I hope you try fresh pumpkin this year if you haven’t already jumped on that bandwagon!  It’s so worth it and as I mentioned, I’ll post how I bake the seeds tomorrow so it’s really a 2 for 1 deal since you get seeds and baked pumpkin, and it's CRAZY easy!