Pumpkin pie is a fall favorite for many. I like it best when the pumpkin is fresh, not canned. The price of pumpkins are higher this year than any time in my memory. I made the decision to skip buying one until Friday afternoon when I visited our local Winn Dixie. They had pumpkins buy one and get one free. Their price was the cheapest I had seen so I changed my mind (woman’s perogative) and bought one. (I brought my free one home, too.)
Saturday I washed one of my pretty orange pumkins and made several long slashes around the diameter for steam to escape (no pumpkin explosion wanted here). I placed it on a foil-covered pan and popped it into a 300 degree oven and let it stay for several hours.
After the pumpkin was soft (a knife was easily inserted through the pulp) I pulled it out of the oven and extended the slits I cut before placing it in the oven and spread it out to cool. The pumpkin will be very soft and collapses as the cuts are made.
My camera battery died after the next picture. Argh, I hate it when that happens. After the pumpkin cooled a bit I scraped the stringy part surrounding the seeds and the seeds away from the center and removed the pulp from the skin. I fed the stringy part to the chickens and spread the seeds on a baking sheet and salted them and popped them back into the oven and roasted them.
I made a couple pie crusts and mixed up a batch of pie filling with two cups of the freshly baked pumpkin meat and made one pie for our suppertime dessert. The pumpkin yielded enough pumpkin for five and a half pies. I froze four and a half pints of cooked pumpkin for later. Earlier today I baked the second pumpkin. It’s cooling now. We’ll get ten or eleven pumpkin pies for $5.00 plus the minimal cost of on-hand spices and staple ingredients.
Baking a pumpkin in the oven saves a lot of work cutting and peeling a firm pumpkin. This method is easy on and painless for anyone who suffers from carpal tunnel.
Until next time…
If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom. ~ Robert Frost ~
mmmmmm I want some!
You know where I live…come on down. We’ll cook up a fresh one when you get here.
I had no idea you could bake it whole in the oven. I gave up peeling it years ago after my failed carpal tunnel surgery so this is great as we love the soup but dread the chopping
Ahhh, then Kathleen, this preparation technique is just right for you. I love pumpkin soup, too!
giggling here, for some reason I thought you’d be doing a start to finish pumpkin carving (I often read the subject, look at pics first on blogs, then ‘read’ the post)….imagine my surprise when I came to the split and soft looking pumpkin pic hahaa! What a delicious looking pie AND seeds for a treat!
Patty, I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years…not since my kids were wee ones. I’m like you. I like the pictures, too, and frequently check them out, too. To me a blog post is not complete without pictures.
I bet you could carve a fantastic jack o lantern!
I have two in the oven right now! Thanks for the how-to, I’ve actually never not used canned pumpkin, I’m really excited!
Jen, do you have two pies or two pumpkins in the oven? Something you need to do…if it is pumpkins and not pies, is google a good fresh pumpkin pie recipe. When using fresh pulp there is more moisture in the pumpkin than in canned. Your pie will be a different texture (same great taste) if you don’t either squeeze out some of the liquid or allow the pumpkin to sit while some of the liquid strains.
Let me know what you think when all is said and done.
I’ll do that! Thanks so much for all your tips. (it was pumpkins, not pies in the oven!) It took a bit longer for both to cook, about 4 hours. They’re cooling now! I can’t wait!