Freezer Friday: Canned Pumpkin Shortage? No Problem!

Updated 9/30/2010: This post has been linked up at Life as Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap.  This is a great way to bring fresh pumpkin to your favorite pumpkin recipe- and it freezes great!

This week rumors are flying around the internet about a shortage of canned pumpkin.  While I haven’t been able to find anything on the national news sources, one station in Iowa and one in West Virginia have both carried stories this week.  Oh dear, what ever shall we do?!  With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, ‘tis the season for pumpkin pies- this could become a major crisis in some households.  Now, while our great-grandmothers are rolling with laughter from their graves at our dependence on commercially canned pumpkin, I’ll share a page I’ve taken from their cook-books.   It starts with these bright orange fruits that are about the size of a bowling ball and that are probably more prevalent than their canned byproducts.  That’s right folks.  You can do more with a pumpkin than carve a face in it!

For baking, you want to make sure you procure good pie pumpkins that are generally smaller in size than their carving counterparts.  They are also bred to have better flavor and cook up great.  Plus, they’re easier to work with!  I was able to get them for about $1 a piece at our local farm stand.

First, cut that sucker open and core all the seeds and goo out of it.



Then, put about a half inch of water in a baking pan and place the pumpkin, cut side down into the pan.  Bake it at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until a fork will slide into it easily.



Next, carefully turn the pumpkin cut side up and let it cool.



Once the pumpkin is cooled, if you want to create your own “canned pumpkin” simply spoon out the flesh from the pumpkin and run it through a blender or food processor. (or take your immersion blender to it).



1 ¾ cups of pumpkin puree is the equivalent of a 15 ounce can.  Measure your pumpkin puree out and freeze these portions.  When you’re ready to bake, thaw and use in your favorite recipes.

So in addition to insuring that we will have pumpkin pie this holiday season, it has been another busy week for the MamaMixer and the Food Grinder/Strainer Attachment .  I have put away pear baby food, another batch of applesauce with results that were as great as last time.  I also made a batch of Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins from this recipe that turned out great.  (I stayed pretty close to the recipe but I did sub in 1 cup of whole wheat flour, cut the cinnamon out and upped the nuts and chocolate chips to 1 cup each.)  Did you get anything stashed in your freezer this week?