What to Do With Your Pumpkin Puree

Now that you've used a fresh pumpkin to make your own pumpkin puree, there's so much that you can do with it! The pumpkin we pureed gave us approximately 8 cups of pumpkin puree. And here's what we used it for:


Pumpkin Pie
2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin (reviewers suggested using more like 2 1/2 cups)
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger (we skipped this; Mom doesn't like ginger)
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
Pastry for 2 single 9-inch pie crusts (here's a good crust recipe)

Prepare pastry. Roll out pastry to fill two pie plates. Partially prebake crust to keep it from getting soggy: Line crust with a double thickness of foil. Heat oven to 425 and bake foil-lined crust for 10 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 2-4 minutes until crust is just barely starting to brown. Press down any bubbles with a fork. Don't prick the crust, though; you don't want filling leaking through.

In a large bowl with mixer speed on medium, beat pumpkin with evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix well. Pour into a prepared crust. Bake 40 minutes or until when a knife is inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.


After cooking the pies, we realized we had two pies, extra pastry trimmings, and six more cups of pumpkin! So we mixed up another batch of pumpkin pie filling, and did this with it:


Mini Pumpkin Pies
1 batch pumpkin pie filling
Pastry dough

Roll out dough as if for making pie crust. Cut 5-inch circles, and use them to line a muffin tin. Pour pie filling into the pastry-lined muffin cups. Bake at 425 until knife inserted in center comes out clean; approximately 30 minutes.


Those were tasty little mini pies! But 12 mini pumpkin pies only used about half of the pumpkin pie filling we mixed up. So I chose to use the rest of the filling to make pumpkin custard.


Pumpkin Custard
Leftover pumpkin pie filling

Grease an oven-safe bowl. Pour pie filling into bowl. Bake at 425 until knife inserted near center comes out clean; approximately 40 minutes.

Pumpkin custard is awesome because as soon as it cools down, you can eat it right out of the bowl! :-)


Okay, so now we've used about 5 cups of puree. I think it's time to break out the mug and make some cake in the microwave!


Chocolate Pumpkin Microwave Mug Cake
4 tbsp. flour
4 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg
3 tbsp. milk
3 tbsp. pumpkin puree
3 tbsp. chocolate chips
We didn't do this, but it might be good to add a tablespoon of oil, for better texture.

In a large mug, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. Mix well. Add egg and mix well. Add milk and pumpkin (and oil) and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Microwave on high for three minutes. The cake with rise above the top of the mug; don't be alarmed. When done, turn cake out onto a plate.



And now, as a bonus, here's the pumpkin-y delightful pizza we had for dinner tonight!


Pumpkin-Sauced Pizza
Crust:
1 tsp. active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. oil

Pumpkin Sauce:
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup tomato juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. oregano

Toppings:
Shredded cheese
Sliced tomato
Sliced onion

To make crust: Sprinkle yeast over the surface of the warm water. Let stand one minute. Stir to dissolve. Stir in flour, salt, and oil. Knead on floured surface five minutes, adding flour as needed if dough is too sticky. Place in oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in warm place until doubled.

While the dough is rising, make your sauce by combining all sauce ingredients. Preheat oven to 475. If using a pizza stone, place stone in oven while preheating.

Once dough has risen, sprinkle a flat surface with cornmeal. Turn dough out onto cornmeal-ed surface and flatted to a 12-inch circle. Sprinkle pizza pan generously with cornmeal. Gently fold dough in quarters and transfer to pizza pan. Spread with sauce, then top with shredded cheese, sliced tomato, and sliced onion.

Bake at 475 for 12-14 minutes (slightly less if using a pizza stone), until crust is browned and cheese is melted. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.


This was a really unique flavor for a pizza. It took a few bites to get used to it, but after a little bit I was totally hooked and ended up eating three pieces! This crust was particularly good. Jeff really prefers his pizza crust to be very thin and very crispy -as this was both, he said it was the best crust I've ever made.


And there you have it - Several absolutely delicious recipes to make with your homemade pumpkin puree! :-)