How to Bake Sugar Pie Pumpkin for Pies, Custard, Bread, and Holiday Baking

Homemade but Simple To Do

Just a few minutes prep plus some waiting time while they’re in the oven, and you’ll have delicious, made-from-scratch pumpkin puree ready to up your holiday baking game. We love fresh pumpkin puree in pie, of course, but it’s amazing to use in pumpkin soup, too. Next, we’d like to make pumpkin muffins, donuts, cake or cookies. What will you try?

Bonus: look in the recipe card for how to make roasted pumpkin seeds.

Shopping for Sugar Pumpkins

Sugar pie pumpkins seem to be more widely available in grocery stores in recent years. They’re much smaller than the decorative pumpkins used for carving Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Their sweeter flavor makes them terrific for baking and soups.

We’re fortunate to live near an area that’s famous for its pumpkin farms. Rebel and I took a day recently to drive over to the coast and visit our favorite one. We brought home four sugar pie pumpkins for soup and pies. They were much larger than we usually find, so we ended up with over 21 cups of puree!

We also snagged some beautiful pumpkins for our front porches -- pumpkins in hues of deep orange, mottled orange and white, striped yellow and orange, and an unusual blue-gray variety. It really put me in the mindset to welcome fall and whip up a batch of soup. A wonderful mom-daughter outing and worth carving out a bit of time from a hectic week.

~ Lee

P.S. We just used pumpkin puree to make this delicious Spiced Pumpkin Custard with Cardamom Cream you’ll want to try. Make it dairy free or dairy full.

print recipe

How to Bake Sugar Pie Pumpkin for Pies, Custard, Bread, and Holiday Baking

by Burnt Toast Food Blog November-9-2018

Enjoy fresh-baked sugar pie pumpkin in pies, cakes, breads, donuts and other holiday baking. Just a few minutes prep and some time in the oven is all you need for real homemade flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 sugar pie pumpkins (about 3 pounds total)
• olive oil or vegetable oil

Instructions

Heat oven to 325°. 1. Rinse and dry pumpkins. Cut the pumpkins in half and scrape out the seeds and stringy membranes with a heavy, metal spoon. Set aside the seeds (and pulp) for roasting the seeds later – see notes below. 2. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and a light layer of oil. Place the pumpkin cut side down on the parchment. 3. Bake about 45 to 60 minutes, or until fork tender and the skin begins to peel away. It may take longer depending on the size of the pumpkins. 4. Let cool enough to handle and scoop out the pulp. Puree in a blender, food processor or with an immersion blender until very smooth. 5. Cover and refrigerate (up to 3 days) until ready to use. Notes: - A 3-pound pumpkin (or two small ones) is approximately what you’ll need to fill one pie. A typical pie uses about 2 cups puree. - Leftover puree freezes well. Be sure to get as much air out of the freezer bag or container as you can before sealing. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using. - Bonus: save the pumpkin seeds, soak them in cold water and rub the pumpkin off; spread on baking sheets to dry at room temperature (or in an oven on low heat); when dry, mix with 1/4 cup olive oil or melted margarine and bake at 275° for 10-20 minutes or more, stirring every 5 minutes, until golden brown. Salt to taste.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes Yield: about 3 cups

Now we’re on Instagram. Hope you’ll follow us!