Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Thick, silky homemade pumpkin puree made with a single ingredient and no peeling. The pumpkin is roasted, strained to remove the fibers, and cooked down until it is thick enough for baking. Swaps 1:1 for canned.
650 g of puree
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg pumpkin 3.3 lb. Whole and unpeeled, or 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) if you buy it pre-cut. Sugar pumpkin, butternut squash, or kabocha
Instructions
- Prep the pumpkin, depending on what you have. If it is whole, cut it in half from top to bottom and scoop out the seeds with a spoon: no need to peel it. If you bought it pre-cut, there is nothing to do.
- Onto the baking sheet, on parchment paper. The halves go cut side down. Loose pieces go in a single layer, not touching: crowded together they steam in their own moisture and the puree comes out wetter.
- Roast at 200 °C (400 °F). Halves take 45 to 60 minutes. Pieces take 40 to 50 minutes. It is ready when a knife slides in with no resistance at all.
- Scoop out the flesh. If you roasted halves, flip them, let them cool for a few minutes, and scrape the flesh out with a spoon all the way to the skin. Pieces go straight into the blender.
- Blend until completely smooth.
- Push it through a fine-mesh strainer with a spatula to remove the fibers. It takes about five minutes and it is what gives the puree its silky texture.
- Into the skillet. Use the widest one you have, over medium low heat, stirring often. 15 to 25 minutes depending on how watery the pumpkin was, and a few more if you roasted halves. It spatters like lava, so keep a lid half on between stirs or turn the heat down.
- Check it with the spatula test. Drag the spatula across the bottom: if the trail takes a second to close, it is done. If it closes right away, keep going.
- Weigh it. 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) of pre-cut pumpkin gives you about 650 g (2⅔ cups) of thick puree, which is about 1½ cans. If your recipe calls for a specific amount, weigh out what you need and save the rest.
- Let it cool completely before storing it, and before using it in any cold recipe like a no-bake cheesecake. Spread out on a sheet pan or a plate, it cools in about 30 minutes; in a deep container it can take a couple of hours. For soups or quick breads you can use it warm.
Notes
- A standard 15 oz can of pumpkin puree is 425 g, about 1¾ cups. One batch of this recipe is about 1½ cans.
- The wider the skillet, the faster it cooks down. If yours is small, work in two batches.
- For baking, the puree needs to be very thick. For soups you can cut the skillet time down to about 10 minutes.
- If it is going into a cold recipe like a no-bake cheesecake, it needs to be fridge cold.
- Keeps 4 to 5 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. Freeze it in 425 g (1¾ cup) portions, one can each.