In my post a couple weeks ago, “Pumpkins are Not Just For Carving“, I said I would be posting on my adventure in pumpkin baking. So, here it is.

My sacrificial pumpkin is ready for the oven. This pumpkin weighed about ten pounds and I baked it at 350 degrees for about 75 minutes. Be sure and pierce the pumpkin with a sharp knife several times before baking and to tell if the pumpkin is done, pierce it again with a sharp knife. If it pierces easily and the outside appears browned, it is done. After baking , I cut the top off and sliced it into more manageable pieces.

I cut it into pieces, scraped the guts out and the peeled the rind away. After cutting into pieces, I pureed it in a food processor.
The ten pound pumpkin yielded a little over eight cups of pumpkin puree.
I made a total mess of the kitchen, but it was well worth it.
I used two cups of the pumpkin in my Pumpkin-Pecan Bread and froze the rest in two cup portions in ziploc bags. Yumm, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars and more pumpkin bread.

For more information about baking pumpkins, check out KSDK’s Heidi Glaus “Hey Heide” segment Hey Heidi: What happens to the pumpkins passed over in patches?“