Pumpkin Puree

This was quite the adventure, and it's only half over! Halloween was just last weekend, and in the spirit of this holiday my spouse and I bought a pumpkin. We didn't end up carving it. So, post-Halloween I have a Jack O'Lantern size pumpkin with no reason to carve it (aside from my own enjoyment.) Naturally the solution to my problem was to turn this pumpkin into a delightful mush for use in pies, cookies, pancakes, ice cream, breads, and anything else I could think of. And so my adventure began.

Method 1:

Step 1: Remove the stem. As you can see, this was a very large pumpkin.

Step 2: Carve out the insides. I apologize for not having a picture. I'd actually done this step a few days ago with the intention of carving the pumpkin. That never happened. Instead, I stuck the pumpkin in the fridge, which was to cause unforeseen complications with this process later.

Step 3: Slice the pumpkin into pieces. I still had a bit of inside-gutting to do.

It was after this step that I discovered that this type of pumpkin is made up entirely of stringy pieces, which may change the texture of my finished product.

Step 4: Into the oven! The oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. The directions I was following said this step should take about 45 minutes, but since I'd put the (open and gutted) pumpkin in the fridge for a few days, it had dried out. About an hour and a half into the baking process my spouse, the engineer, suggested I put water on the pumpkin slices. They mushified within ten minutes.

Step 5: Scrape away the flesh.

Step 6: Process the mush however you wish, whether it's a beater, food processor, blender, or other fancy kitchen device. If your pumpkin is kind of dry, it's suggested to mix in a bit of water to get it to your desired texture. Too moist? Put it in a strainer or cheesecloth to drain away some excess fluid. By the end of this step you should have your pumpkin puree.

Step 7: Cook or store as you please. Since we ended up with so much pumpkin, we decided to put the extra scrapings into Ziploc bags and stored it in the freezer. This is pre-mushified pumpkin pulp.

Method 2:

Since the pumpkin was so big, I ended up only processing half of it in my first try. This gave me the opportunity to soak the extra pieces in water in hopes of rehydrating them, and a new process unfolded.

Follow steps 1 to 3 as shown above. 

Step 4: Place the pieces of pumpkin in a Ziploc bag (or bowl, if you prefer), fill it with water, and store overnight in the fridge.

Step 5: Put into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or as long as is needed for the flesh to be soft enough. I ended up having to pour water on it, as before, but this time it only took an extra twenty minutes to cook.

This is what mine looked like when I took it out.

Steps 6 through 7 are the same as above.