Recently I had felt nostalgic for making apple butter. We have many apple trees in our yard and usually each fall I post pictures on Facebook for people to come and get them and they come in droves to get buckets of apples. I used to make apple butter with my mom and she had learned from my great-grandmother. I have all of grandmothers original tools she used to do this. This year, after a big storm took out most of the apples – I decided I was going to make the butter again…
but this post is not about that. 😉
WHILE looking on-line for a refresher course on how to make the apple butter… I came across Pumpkin Butter. I mean seriously could that sound more delicious of more Fall? I did make the apple butter….and it is fantastic…
and then I bought a pumpkin…
Here is what you need:
One Pumpkin (you can use pumpkin puree from the store but I wanted to go completely from scratch)
sugar
ginger
cinnamon
nutmeg
Tools:
Crock Pot
A food mill (I use my grandma’s)
Take your pumpkin and cut up into chucks with the hard outside shell taken off.
Place in a large pot covered in water and cook on high until the pumpkin is soft. I used my Grandmothers food mill to puree it went in to the crock pot but I bet you could use a potato masher as well.
Once your pumpkin is in the crock pot I added the spices to taste. I have no exact measurements as it depends on your pumpkin size. I added cinnamon, and about a half cup of sugar, nutmeg and ginger. With crock pot on low, let it cook 8 to 10 hours, or to desired thickness. Add more spice if needed according to your taste as it cooks.
Pour into jars or gift containers.
***Note: Pumpkin Butter is not recommended to hot water seal your jars. The acids in the pumpkin do not allow for safe sealing (I know right? This was news to me too!) You can keep it safely in your refrigerator up to three weeks, or you can freeze it and take it out as you need it.
Final thoughts: I loved the taste and texture. While the canning note was a surprise (I did not know you could not seal it until I had made it) I put in refrigerator and gave away to friends over the next few days. When I do it again – and I will, I will put the jars back in the box they came in and freeze. If you leave an inch head room in the jar for expansion as it freezes, the jars are ok to freeze in.
Pumpkin butter is delicious on toast, but it is also good in yogurt, and on pancakes.
I will be linking this one up to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Go and see what others are cooking this weekend 🙂
What am I listening to while cooking this weekend? Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax... a fun womens literature style listen. 🙂
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