Pumpkin Spice Butter, Using Canned or Fresh-Cooked Pumpkin

Many years ago our family went to a pumpkin and corn farm in the fall. In addition to fields of pumpkins and corn, they had this cute little store at the front of the farm. The store's shelves were lined with jars of relishes, jams, and butters. Being a crisp October day, one of the butters in particular caught my eye, the pumpkin spice butter. It was about $5 a jar back then. I didn't buy any, but decided to try making it myself. I played around with a few recipes and came up with something of my own that we enjoy at our house. And it's a fraction of the cost of the pumpkin butter from the farm store, specialty market, or any place else you might find it. 

I thought I'd share this recipe in case anyone wanted to try making a small batch of pumpkin butter for themselves. And since you can use canned pumpkin, your pumpkin butter can be made with ease.

Pumpkin Spice Butter

one 15-oz can or 2 cups strained (to remove excess liquid) home-cooked pumpkin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon or a bit more ground cloves, depending on preference
5/8 teaspoon ground ginger
3/8 to 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, depending on preference
3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup apple juice or apple cider
3/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon lemon juice

(tiny dash salt, optional, see notes below)

Stir all ingredients except the lemon juice together a medium saucepan and cook over the lowest setting on stove until dark brown and thick. Stir in lemon juice. When done, you can draw a spoon across the bottom of the pan and no liquid will seep into the scraped space, and it should hold its shape on a spoon like stiff mashed potatoes. 

Cook this low and slow. I left mine to cook for a little over an hour on the lowest setting on my stove, stirring periodically to prevent scorching. I was busy with other kitchen and laundry chores that day, so it's not like I was standing at the stove for all of this time. I began with half home-cooked pumpkin, which is more watery, and half canned. So if you're making yours with all canned pumpkin, your cooking time will be a little shorter.

Yields about 12 to 14 ounces

note: I'll also add that one of my daughters likes this pumpkin butter with a dash of salt. So some years I add just that, a very tiny dash of salt to the cooked butter.

Keep refrigerated for up to 4 weeks or frozen up to several months. Do not can this pumpkin butter. However, you'll be pleased to know that it freezes beautifully. 

With this last batch, I refrigerated half to use this month and froze half to enjoy later.

If what you prefer is butternut squash over pumpkin, this also makes a delicious butternut squash butter.

Ways to use pumpkin butter:

• as a spread on toast, scones, biscuits, or plain muffins
• filling for cinnamon swirl-type breads or rolls
• to add a generous dollop to French toast, waffles, or pancakes
• blended with softened cream cheese as a spread on bagels
• to fill small, baked tart shells
• as the filling for a spice or vanilla cake between the layers
• use a dollop on curried lentils or meat in place of chutney
• as a condiment to roast pork or poultry
• as a dip or spread for apple or pear wedges
• layered in an autumn parfait of pudding: pumpkin butter, whipped cream and a nut sprinkle
• blend with caramel sauce for topping ice cream
• blended into plain eggnog 

Have you tried pumpkin butter? What did you think? 

Harvest Season: Making Use of Every Last Bit

Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield.
--Benjamin Franklin

If I say the phrase "harvest season" what comes to mind? I think about bringing in corn, pumpkins, squashes, and apples.

In our summer garden, we eat our favorites, the best of the best. In our harvest season garden, I'm bringing in all of the odds and ends and some foods that don't look as great as their summer versions (celery is one of those veggies). So harvest season for me is all about bringing in the last of the edible veggies.

I've been working diligently at harvesting everything edible from our garden. Every day, I go out there to see what needs to be picked that day before it will no longer be a desirable food.

I told you about the carrot leaf pesto I made last week and the week before. This past Saturday, I picked every nasturtium leaf bigger than a dime to make a third batch of pesto. I filled out the quantity with parsley and watercress. The resulting nasturtium-watercress-parsely pesto is delicious. One of my favorite ways to use pesto is on macaroni pasta with a little diced tomato and Parmesan cheese blended in. When this current batch of pesto is gone, I'll make radish leaf and watercress pesto using veggies from the fall container garden.

I also told you about the crabapple sauce I made last week. I used a cup of it in the applesauce-raisin bar cookies that I baked over the weekend. Crabapple sauce can have a sharp flavor on its own. But in the cookies it was delicious. To eat this sauce as is, I blend it 50/50 with plain applesauce to mellow the flavor. I still have about 1/3 of the crabapples left to harvest. I plan on making cider with these apples.

One daughter had some time one day to help me harvest greens to chop and freeze. We harvested Swiss chard, sorrel, Brussel sprout leaves, and parsley on that day. You can cut about half of the Brussel sprout leaves at this point in the season without compromising the growth of the sprouts. We sliced them thin and froze in a large bag. The texture of Brussel sprout leaves is a lot like kale, but a bit thicker. The Swiss chard will be the first of the garden greens to die out from the cold, wet weather. So, I've been making an effort to pick those regularly for meals, as well and the large bag that we froze. Sorrel has a lemony taste but a texture much like Swiss chard. So we chopped and froze the sorrel and bagged with with the chard. The two together should go well in quiches, frittatas, and soups. Parsley will do well for several more weeks. But as we have so much of it, we're working at harvesting it for the freezer on a regular basis. Frozen parsley can be added to sauces, soups, stews, vegetable medleys, and winter pesto.

I harvested a third batch of unripe figs on Saturday to preserve in a light syrup flavored with cloves and lemon juice. So far I've canned about 16 jars of sweet green figs to enjoy throughout winter. When we finish a jar of the figs, I use the syrup to flavor and sweeten hot tea or pour over pancakes.

Yesterday I cut all of the long stems of rosemary to dry on the counter this week. Rosemary is a nice flavor addition to potatoes and various Mediterranean dishes. Later this week I'll harvest more thyme for winter cooking. Thyme is my favorite herb to use with beef dishes.

I picked the last remaining small green tomatoes today. I  chopped them fine and froze to add to chocolate spice muffins (Green Tomatoes in Hiding) when I bake again soon. It's time to pull the tomato plants up and pile them on the compost heap.

I also began harvesting the celery plants today. I pulled up about half of the plants, chopped, and froze the stems and leaves in a large bag to use in winter soups and sauces. I also harvested the last of the cucumbers and summer squash plus some green beans this morning. And I picked what are probably the last of the overbearing raspberries. One more cold night like last night and the raspberries are gone.

I will need to harvest the Brussel sprouts, the remaining Brussel sprout leaves, the remaining green beans, the rest of the Swiss chard, celery, and parsley, the last third of the crabapples, and perhaps one more batch of green unripe figs.

When your harvest is carrot greens or nasturtium leaves or unripe figs, you have to be creative in how you cook those foods and diligent at using them up. My lunches and dinners have featured a lot of oddball pestos, crabapple-apple sauce, the top leafy parts of celery stalks, and preserved unripe figs. You do what you've got to do.

It's been a lot of work. I mentioned to my husband that I could probably harvest every edible thing we grow if I had an assistant. But alas, all of my potential assistants have their own jobs. So, I'm doing my best to harvest what I can.