HI! I am Petra Cox from Mom's Apple Pie Company in Occoquan, Virginia and today I'm showing you how to process Pumpkin or Squash from scratch, so that you can make Pumpkin Pies, Pumpkin Breads and other Pumpkin Desserts.
So, here I have -- this is an amber-cup pumpkin, it's actually a squash biologically but this makes a really excellent pumpkin pie, and believe it or not so does a butternut squash. Any time you might use a pumpkin in a dessert, you could also use butternut squash and it gives it a really nice bright orange color and a nice sweet flavor as well. It's almost more pumpkiny than pumpkin.
So to process your squash or your pumpkin, you are going to need a nice sharp knife and some pretty deep baking pans, and a little water and we are going to cook it in a 400 degree oven. So, to process the butternut squash, first I am going to cut it right before the bowl starts at the bottom. This way you have the really meaty part at the top and then the part at the bottom has a hollow area with the seeds.
You can put the cut side down, so it's really nice and steady and then just cut straight down the middle. You can see that there are some seeds and some sort of pithy material on the inside there, and that you don't need to take out just yet, you can take that out after it's already been cooked and you just put the cut sides down on the bottom of an ungreased pan. Then for the top you don't have to take the little stem off yet, only if you want to.
You cut straight down the middle and since this is not been cooked yet, of course, it's really very kind of hard to cut, so you've got to use some force and sometimes you need to come at it from different angles. But again you put the cut side down, and as you can see with butternut squash, it's really nice to use because the top part is really full of meat and there is nothing that you have to hollow out. It's just a lot -- you've got about a cup of the pumpkin meat on each side. I know it sounds funny to use a butternut squash in a pumpkin pie but it tastes really good.
Here is our Ambercup. It has that really bright beautiful color on the outside and you give these a really good wash down because they grow in winter. We grow these ourselves on our farm and we grow a variety because it's nice to use a variety of a different kinds of squash and pumpkins in the pie.
So, this one has sort of narrower sides, it's going to take probably about half a pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie. So, I cut that in half and laid the cut side down and cut it again. I am going to lay it down in another pan with cut side down. This has some more seeds and other sort of foamy material on the inside that we'll scoop out when it's already been cooked.
At this point, before putting it in the oven, you want to add some water, and it's probably about an inch of water on the bottom there. This is so the pumpkin doesn't dry out and burn, but you don't need to completely submerge the pumpkin. The water will sort of steam up and evaporate in the oven and the level will go down, but I must say it really hits the bottom of the pan, you don't need to add more after you cook it.
So at this point it takes probably about 45 minutes in a 375 degree to 400 degree oven. So cook the pumpkin until it's nice and soft. The edges on the skin, sometimes they'll get a little burnt looking but it's okay because that's just the skin, and about midway probably about after 20 minutes when you're using these pumpkin wedges, you can flip it over, so that the other side is exposed to the water and the side that was on the bottom of the pan is more exposed to the hot air in the oven. So we're just going to throw this in the oven and that will be done in about 45 minutes.
And the next step after they've been baked will be to drain the water and let it cool off before you throw the pumpkin meat in the food processor. So that is step one of processing a pumpkin from scratch for nice pumpkin treats.
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