Freezing Pumpkin

Halloween is over & the pumpkins are cheaper .... found some for $1.00 ea sure beats $3.99 ea... SCORE... so I picked up 15 & off to the house I went with visions of pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pies, & my favorite pumpkin Butter.

The first thing I do is wash them off outside & let them sit to dry as I get things ready. Things you will need: Aluminum Foil, knife, trash bag, lg pan for baking, lg spoon, lg bowl, Blender, Qt freezer bag & cutting board

All ready....set oven to 350 degree..... go get a pumpkin, if there is still a stem on it cut it off then cut pumpkin in half length wise. Remove seed & scrape pumpkin out with lg spoon... this is where the trash bags comes in, put the seeds & scrapings in trash bag. Place on pan wrap with aluminum foil .... bake for at least 2 hrs or till done. Amount of time to cook will depend on size of your pumpkin. Pumpkin flesh should be soft & a fork will stick in with no force needed.

 

I am baking 2 at a time...this takes alittle longer....this is to show you the types of pans you can use..... when using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan be careful because pumpkin is full of water don't spill it & burn yourself :) when cooked remove from oven, remove aluminum foil & allow to cool.. Pour off water

when cooled scrape the flesh out of the skin & spoon into a lg bowl...Throw skin into trash bag.

 Repeat this until you have enough pumpkin & are ready to move on to next step.. you can proceed from here but I like to run mine thu the blender first.. makes for smother pumpkin puree to use in pies, cakes, cookies & pumpkin rolls.


 I would always run into trouble trying to hold the freezer bag open & pour pumpkin into it... I found that if I take a lg cup place the freezer bag into in turn the top of the bag over the top of the glass made it alot easier. I put 2 Cups into ea qt freezer bag because most recipes call for 2 cups. Zip lock the top while pushing the air up & out.

Repeat this till you have used all your pumpkin. Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet & freeze.. when fully frozen remove from cookie sheet & place in a pile in your freezer. Now your are ready to use your pumpkin in any recipe that calls for pumpkin. The best part it's fresh pumpkin no chemicals, pure pumpkin :)

 

 

                                                                               I used 5 med sized pumpkins to get this amt .. all together I ended up with 30 cups of pumpkin..that's 6 cups for ea pumpkin .... I used 2 cups in Gooey Pumpkin Bars & there are 2 more bags not shown

                                                        

Hope this works easy for you ...any question call me or leave a message below.. I will get back to you

Pumpkin Butter Next :)