Fresh pumpkin might seem a little daunting. It sure did for me at first. Its a little time consuming, and pretty messy – but once you try some fresh pumpkin bread or pumpkin pancakes – you’ll be hooked.
You do have to do a bunch in October while pumpkins are available, but its really cool to pull fresh pumpkin out of your freezer and whip up some pumpkin bread in January.
4 baking pumpkins makes enough to keep us in pumpkin bread and pumpkin pies through the holidays.
You want to use baking pumpkins, or sugar pumpkins. Put them on a foil lined cookie sheet.
Put them in a preheated 350 (F) oven and go do something else for 90 minutes. Just come back and turn the cookie sheet a couple of times.
They’ll come out looking something like this. Let them cool a bit before trying to handle.
The peel will come off easily.
Clean out the gunk with a spoon and separate the seeds.
Clean the seeds and put them on paper towels to dry.
Line a colander with cheese cloth or paper towel. Put the pumpkin meat in the colander and let it drain for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, take the dry pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet and put in a 250 F. oven for about an hour.
When you take the seeds out of the oven, lightly salt them and put into a tightly sealed container.
Put the pumpkin meat into the blender and puree for about a minute.
Pack the pumpkin in 1 cup portions and put in the freezer – except for one portion.
Make a loaf of pumpkin bread for breakfast tomorrow 😉
Look in the Pumpkin Patch for more great pumpkin recipes!