I’m on what you might call a crusade this Halloween season to persuade the masses, or whoever will listen, about the virtues of buying a baking pumpkin instead of a carving pumpkin. You see, a baking pumpkin you can eat and a carving pumpkin actually just serve the same purpose as a gourd that you decorate and throw out (though the seeds are good). Yes, everyone enjoys gutting a pumpkin, but eating them is much more useful, eco-friendly, and practical.
Buy a Baking Pumpkin Instead of a Carving Pumpkin
For starters, baking pumpkins are sold by their weight, not by their size – so you get more for your money. Second, as I mentioned above, they’re edible. So instead of them sitting on your porch (which you can do with a baking pumpkin, too), a baking pumpkin can sit in your stomach. Ahh, the satisfaction!
And just because you bake it doesn’t mean that you can’t safely decorate a baking pumpkin first. This way you can enjoy it for both Halloween and Thanksgiving!
There are two ways to prepare a pumpkin so it can be enjoyed in all your favorite pumpkin recipes: baking and boiling. I’m going to show you the latter.
How to Peel, Boil, and Pureé a Pumpkin
Before you start, fill a large pot with water and heat it on the stove. By the time you prepped the pumpkin the water should be boiled.
Peel a Pumpkin
The best way to peel a pumpkin is with a sharp knife. But first, cut off the stem and bottom so that it can sit on your cutting board without rolling around. You like your fingers, right?
Scoop Out the Guts
See, you still get to do a little gutting. Cut the pumpkin in half first. You can use your hands, though I prefer using an ice cream scoop. In this step, you also want to reserve the seeds for frying or baking.
Dice the Pumpkin Flesh
Dice up the remaining flesh of the pumpkin, like you’d cut up potatoes to boil.
Boil
The big difference between baking a pumpkin and boiling a pumpkin, from my perspective, is that baking takes 60 minutes and boiling takes 30. Save time, save energy.
Strain out the Water
Empty your pot of boiled pumpkin into a strainer and let it sit until there is no more steam. By releasing the steam you’ll keep your pureé thick and not watery.
Pureé in a Blender
That’s pretty self-explanatory I hope.
Portion and Freeze
This is the fun part! This is where you pull out all your favorite pumpkin recipes and determine how much pumpkin goes in each. Then you portion out your pumpkin pureé so that you have exactly what you need for each recipe.
Below is a photo of a freezer bag that I segmented into 4 portions – two 1 cup portions and two 3/4 cup portions. As you can see, I used chip clips to help separate the portions.
Enjoy the Best Pumpkin Recipes
Below I’ve linked to some of my all-time favorite pumpkin recipes!!
- Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes recipe from Mother Thyme 1 cup pumpkin pureé
- Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen 1 cup frozen pumpkin pureé – which is perfect because we’re freezing the pureé!
- Pumpkin Cranberry Biscotti Recipe from Confessions of a Tart 3/4 cup pumpkin pureé
- Pumpkin Tarts with Maple Glaze from Joy the Baker 3/4 cup pumpkin pureé
- Pumpkin Biscuits from Eve of Reduction
So I had to come up with my own recipe after all!
1 cup pureed pumpkin that was frozen and thawed, but still very cold*
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
