Homemade Pumpkin Puree (And How to Keep It From Going Watery)

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The first thing to know about homemade pumpkin puree is that you can do every step right and still end up with something closer to soup than to pie filling. Roast the pumpkin, blend it, pour it into jars, feel very accomplished. Then bake with it and watch the batter come out loose and the pie come out weepy.

The part that actually matters is that fresh pumpkin holds a lot more water than the canned stuff does, and if you skip one step you will notice it in everything you bake for the next six months. So that is the part I want to spend the most time on here.

This is how I do it now, in my kitchen in Long Grove, usually on a Sunday when Danny takes Lochlan out to the yard with Dewey and I have the house quiet for a couple of hours. It is not complicated. It is mostly waiting.

The short version

Buy small sugar pumpkins, not the big carving kind. Cut them in half, scoop the seeds, roast them cut side down at 400F for about 45 minutes until a fork slides in with no resistance. Scoop the flesh out of the skin, blend it smooth, then strain it for a few hours so the extra water drains off. Freeze it in one cup portions. One medium sugar pumpkin gives me somewhere between two and three cups, which is about a can and a half.

That is the whole thing. Everything below is the detail I wish someone had given me the first time.

Which pumpkin to buy (and which to leave at the stand)

The big orange pumpkins stacked out front for carving are not the ones you want. They are bred to be large and hollow and to hold a candle, and the flesh inside is stringy and thin on flavor. You can absolutely cook one. It just will not taste like much.

What you want is labeled sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin. They are small, usually four to six pounds, darker orange, and heavy for their size. Heavy is the thing I check for. A pumpkin that feels light for how big it looks is mostly air and water inside. I pick them up, one in each hand, and buy the heavier one.

Butternut squash works too and honestly makes an even smoother puree. I use it interchangeably in everything except pie, where I want the pumpkin flavor to be the point.

Two sugar pumpkins is my usual haul. That fills a sheet pan and gives me five or six cups, which gets me through most of the fall baking I actually do.

How I roast it

Heat the oven to 400F. Cut the pumpkin in half from stem to base. This is the hardest part of the whole process and I will not pretend otherwise. A sharp heavy knife and a steady cutting board, and go slow. If a pumpkin is fighting me I microwave it for two minutes first, which softens the skin just enough to get the knife started.

Scoop out the seeds and the stringy middle with a metal spoon. An ice cream scoop works better than a spoon if you have one. Save the seeds if you want to roast them, they are good, but do not feel obligated. Some years I do and some years I compost them.

Put the halves cut side DOWN on a sheet pan. This matters. Cut side down traps the steam against the pan and cooks the flesh evenly, and it also means the surface is not drying out and browning while the inside is still hard. I do not add water to the pan and I do not add oil. Just the pumpkin on the bare pan, or on parchment if you would rather not scrub it later.

Roast for 40 to 50 minutes. It is done when you can push a fork through the skin without effort and the halves have collapsed a little. Let them sit until they are cool enough to handle, then scoop the flesh away from the skin. It comes off in soft sheets and takes about thirty seconds per half.

The watery part, which is the whole game

Here is what nobody told me. Canned pumpkin has already been cooked down and pressed. Fresh roasted pumpkin has not, and depending on the pumpkin, up to a third of what you just scooped out is water.

Blend the flesh first. An immersion blender straight into the bowl is the least amount of dishes. A food processor gives you the silkiest texture. A potato masher works fine if you do not mind a little rustic texture, and for soups and oatmeal that is what I usually do anyway.

Then strain it. Line a fine mesh sieve with a few layers of cheesecloth or a clean flour sack towel, set it over a bowl, and pour the puree in. Cover it and put the whole setup in the fridge for at least four hours. Overnight is better.

You will come back to a surprising amount of pale liquid in the bowl underneath, and a puree that is thick enough to hold the shape of a spoon. That is what you are looking for. That is the texture that behaves like canned pumpkin in a recipe.

Do not throw the liquid out. It is mild and slightly sweet and I use it in oatmeal, in smoothies, or in a pot of soup instead of some of the stock. On weeks when I am tired and running on whatever is easiest, that is one less thing wasted.

If you skip the straining, you can still use the puree. You just have to know it is wetter than what the recipe was written for, and you will want to pull back on other liquid. For pie, do not skip it.

Freezing it so you actually use it

I freeze in one cup portions because almost every recipe I make calls for one cup or two. If you freeze it in one big container you will have to thaw the whole thing to get at any of it, and it will sit there until March.

Two ways I do it. Wide mouth half pint jars, filled to the shoulder and no higher so the puree has room to expand, lid on, straight in the freezer. Or a silicone muffin tray, one cup per well, frozen solid overnight and then popped out into a freezer bag so they stack flat.

Label with the date. It keeps for a year but it is best inside six months, and I am always convinced I will remember when I made it and I never do.

Thaw in the fridge overnight. There will be a little separation and a bit of water on top. Stir it back in and it is fine.

What I actually make with it

Pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins take the most of it around here. After that it goes into oatmeal, into pancake batter, stirred into a pot of soup to thicken it, and about a tablespoon at a time into Dewey’s food because our vet suggested it once and now he expects it.

It also goes into things that are not sweet at all. A spoonful into a pot of chili does something quietly good. Stirred into risotto with sage. Whisked into my homemade bone broth with a little cream for the simplest soup I make all season.

This is the same rhythm as the crockpot apple butter I make every fall. Do the work once, in a batch, on a day you have the energy for it, and then eat off it for months. I have an autoimmune disease and my energy is not the same from one week to the next, so anything I can front-load on a good day is worth doing. That is most of what my from-scratch meal prep comes down to.

Questions I get about this

Is homemade pumpkin puree better than canned?

Better is the wrong word. It tastes fresher and a little more like squash, and it is less uniformly sweet than canned. Canned pumpkin is good and I keep some in the pantry. I make my own because I like doing it and because I know exactly what is in it.

Can I substitute it one to one for canned?

Yes, as long as you strained it. Unstrained, it is wetter and your batter will be looser than the recipe expects.

How much puree does one pumpkin make?

A four to five pound sugar pumpkin gives me about two and a half cups after straining. A can of pumpkin is fifteen ounces, which is a scant two cups. So roughly one pumpkin per can and a half.

Can I can it instead of freezing?

Not safely as a puree. Pumpkin is low acid and too dense for the heat to get through reliably, so the tested method is pressure canning it in cubes, not pureed. Freezing is simpler and I have never wished I did it another way.

Why is my puree stringy?

Usually the pumpkin. Carving pumpkins are stringy no matter what you do. If it is a sugar pumpkin and still stringy, run it through a fine sieve after blending and press it through with a spatula.

If you have never done this, start with one pumpkin. Roast it on an afternoon when you are already home, strain it overnight without thinking about it, and see how the bread turns out. It is a small thing. Most of the good ones are.