Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Crock Pot Pumpkin Butter

In my last blog post, I shared with you how to bake whole pumpkins in the oven.
{Wasn't that pretty neat?!}

So, for my 1st use with my fresh pureed pumpkin,
I made pumpkin butter in my crock pot!

I've never made pumpkin butter before.
Actually, we've not eaten it too much either.
James & I both grew up eating apple butter & we both love pumpkin, so we knew pumpkin butter would probably be something we'd enjoy.
In the fall of '09 while we were vacationing in Tennessee, we bought our 1st jar
& boy, was it was delicious!
We also brought back a jar for my mom & dad, & my brother.
They all loved it so much they wanted me to look up the shop so they could order some more!

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try this recipe!

I researched many variations of this recipe on the internet until I found one I liked.
{Actually, this recipe is a combo of a couple.}

Place the following ingredients into a cold crock pot:

10 c. pureed pumpkin
4 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
juice of 1 lemon




Turn crock pot on low & cook all day {or all night}.
It will darken in color & become thicker as it cooks.

After completely cooled, spoon pumpkin butter in sterilized pint {or half-pint} jars.





**Pumpkin butter cannot be stored on the shelf,
even if the jars have been sealed in a water bath. 
It must be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks or stored in the freezer.

This is really delicious ... kinda like pumpkin pie right outta the jar ;)
We especially like it on hot biscuits.






I think I'll be taking a couple jars to my mom, dad & brother ...
to see what they think about it!

4 comments:

  1. Sounds fabulous! I do have 2 questions for you though.

    1 - Can the pumpkin butter be stored long term if you have a pressure canner? If so, how long should you process it for?

    2 - When cooking down the pumpkin butter in the crock pot, do you leave the lid on or off? We found it needed to be off when making apple butter otherwise it wouldn't cook down. You might clarify this in your post.

    Thanks for the idea!

    Emma
    City Roots, Country Life

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  2. Joseph & Emma:

    I reviewed several recipes {probably 10-15} & all recommended storage in fridge or freezer. The only pressure canning for pumpkin that I read about was for cubed pumpkin. Here is a link for addtl info ... Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist. The University of Georgia and Ft. Valley State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and counties of the state cooperating.

    This worked perfectly with the lid on, cooking down just right. I didn't even think about clarifying that on the blog. Each recipe that I reviewed made no mention to needing to leave the lid off in order for it to reduce. I'd say a recipe such as this would be similar to applesauce ... some prefer it chunkier, some do not... some may like this cooked down more than others ... ? I do hope you try it & enjoy. We sure are. In fact, we had some with our 'breakfast for supper' tonight!

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  4. for some reason the link didn't cooperate ... let's try that again:

    http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinbutter.php

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