No Can Pumpkin Muffins

We received this little pie pumpkin from our CSA and I started thinking about eating it more than using it in the fall decor. (supposedly the ornamental kale is edible too!) I have mentioned before that my parents are pumpkin farmers, but sadly I have only used canned pumpkin in past recipes.

I consulted the all knowing Pioneer Woman to figure out how to make my own pumpkin puree. First I chopped off the top and scooped out all of the guts and seeds with a spoon. I baked the pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Once the pieces were tender, I used a spoon to scoop out the soft pumpkin. (I prefer a spoon over a knife. Knives scare me. Last year I had to go to the ER because of a dishwasher unloading incident)

I attempted to use a blender and some water to puree the pumpkin, but the blender was not happy about this task. I ended up using a potato masher first and then placing the mashed pumpkin into the blender. A food processor would have made this job much easier. I will be adding one to my Christmas list.

Although this process took a lot more effort than opening up a can, I did get four and half cups of pumpkin puree. This will be enough pumpkin for muffins, bread and a pie for Thanksgiving.

I found a recipe for Downeast Main Pumpkin Bread from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I made a few adjustments to this recipe. Obviously I substituted two cups of homemade pumpkin puree for the can. I only used 2.5 cups of sugar because some of the reviews said it was too sweet. I did not have ground cloves. The smallest container I could find at the store was $5 and I was not about to bust my budget on cloves! I substituted a 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and a 1/4 teaspoon of Chinese five-spice for the ground cloves.

I made one loaf of bread and 24 cupcakes. I cooked the cupcakes for 22 minutes. (The first batch cooked longer because I forgot to hit start on the timer. I recommend the shorter cooking time)

Overall, I think the extra effort was worthwhile if this is a once a year project. The pumpkin muffins received good reviews on our wine tasting trip. I will post more on that later this week : )

linked: skiptomylou, dittledattle, asouthernfairytale, thegirlcreative, sumossweetstuff, blackberryvine, blessedwithgrace, simplysugarandglutenfree, 33shadesofgreen, forblogs, ladybehindthecurtain, southernlovely, thestuffofsuccess