How To Make Your Own Pumpkin Puree

Stop buying pumpkin puree from the store!  Instead, pick up couple of small pie pumpkins and get crockin'!!!!!!!  I bought 2 small pie pumpkins from the Farmer's Market for $3.00.  I made approximately 6-8 cans worth of puree!  Holy Cow!!!  And let me tell you, it wasn't hard!  Want to know how I did it?  Keep reading!

Servings: Makes approximately 6-8 cans of pumpkin puree

Ingredients:

2 pie pumpkins

water

Directions: (Use a 5 quart or larger slow cooker for this)

Wash your pumpkins and cut off any blemishes.

Cut the stem off and either scrape the seeds out, or cut it in half and then remove the seeds.

Cut up your pumpkin, skins on and everything and put the pieces into the slow cooker.

Cook your pumpkin on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

I tried this a couple ways from here.  I tried pureeing it with the skin on.  I couldn't get it smooth enough, but I was using a little food processor.  If you have a good one, give it a try.  It keeps all those important nutrients in there!  If not, do like I ended up doing....let the pumpkin cool.  Once it's cool, use a spoon and gently scrape the pumpkin from the skin!  It will come off like BUTTER!  

Put it into a food processor or blender with enough water to make it move.

Put it into freezer bags according to how much pumpkin you typically use at a time.  I did approximately 1 cup baggies.

Freeze them until you're ready to use them.

Enjoy!