Pumpkin Butter!

Posted by Sarahbear on November 1, 2010

One of the ways I keep myself motivated to eat healthfully is by trying new recipes. I love, love, love to cook. Now it’s just a matter of finding recipes or changing out a few ingredients to make my favorite things a little better for my body. It’s fall and there are thousands of gorgeous pumpkins everywhere you go, including in recipes on websites like skinnytaste.com! I found a recipe for pumpkin butter over there a few weeks ago, along with several recipes of things to use it in, and have been dying to try it since. I finally remembered to get the stuff I didn’t already have in my spice cabinet and made myself a batch.

Here’s the recipe I made:

1 can (29 ounces) of pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup apple juice

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Combine everything together and bring to a boil in a large saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes (or until thickened).

Delicious!

So easy, right? It’s so good too! You can use fresh pumpkin if you prefer. You can also substitute agave nectar, honey, maple syrup if you want to go with a less processed sweetener or the brown sugar blend of Splenda if you wanted to cut back on the calories. I put half into a glass mason jar and half into a plastic freezing container. I was going to try canning it, but after doing a bit of reading I found out it’s not safe to can. The USDA doesn’t recommend it and it has something to do with the density of the pumpkin making it impossible to get it to the high temperature needed to kill off the botulism spores at home, not even with a pressure canner. There’s also something about the acidity of the pumpkin that makes it unsafe to can.

However, it keeps in the refrigerator and freezes just fine. One site said it should be fine for about 2 weeks, refrigerated, in an air tight container. I’m including all this extra stuff because it wasn’t all in one place. I don’t like wasting food and I wanted to know what I could do so I didn’t wind up throwing out half the batch. Pumpkin butter isn’t necessarily something you use everyday so you may want to wait until you’ve got a taste for it and plan your week around some recipes that include it.