Pumpkin Purée

I can’t believe I’ve never made my own pumpkin purée before. It’s so simple!

I was originally going to post this as part of another recipe, but the amount of purée that came from one little pumpkin was way more than I expected. I’ll be splitting it up between three recipes (pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and pumpkin whoopie pies), so it makes sense to give this its very own post.

First, preheat the oven to 400°. Cut the stem off the pumpkin. Then, using a large knife, divide pumpkin into quarters. Scrape out pumpkin guts and set aside (don’t toss them out until after you’ve removed all of those tasty seeds!). Arrange quarters in a baking pan and cover with tin foil. Roast for around 35–40 minutes.

Remove pumpkin from oven and let cool for 10–15 minutes. (Or, if you like to scrape the pumpkin out with your grubby little hands, give it 20–30 minutes.) Once it’s cool, begin scraping flesh away from the shell. You can do this with a spoon, but it’s much more fun to use your fingers! Purée pumpkin using a food processor or an immersion blender. That’s it! If you won’t be using it right away, store it in the fridge in an airtight container.