Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

 Fall to me means apples and pumpkins.

I love apple pie and pumpkin spice. Normally for my holiday baking I use canned pumpkin because it's cheap and let's be totally honest I didn't know how to make fresh pumpkin puree. So, I did a bit of research on Pinterest and discovered I could cook my pumpkin in the Instant pot pretty easily. Luckily I have one so that is what I decided to use.

Cooking The Pumpkin

I choose 3 small pumpkins (I just estimated that they would fit in my pot) and washed the outsides. 

What I read online said you could just put the whole pumpkin in the instant pot (seeds and all) on a trivet, add 1 cup of water, cook for 30 minutes and then quick release. Once you pull the pumpkin out you are to let it cool a bit then you should be able to peel off the skin, scrape out the seeds and harvest the lovely pumpkin flesh.

This seemed simple enough so I chose the pumpkin that actually fit in my instant pot (the other two were slightly too big). Put it on the trivet, poured in the water and set the pot to cook for 30 minutes. . . . . Then I forgot about (or rather got too busy running after my kids). 

Instead of doing the quick release I let the pot naturally release/warm for 38 minutes. My pumpkin cooked and was pretty much mush. The seeds scraped out very easily and the skin disintegrated at my touch. It was a mess.

Pumpkin #2

For my second attempt I cut a pumpkin in half and removed the seeds while I was in there. Note: you can save the seeds if you like roasted pumpkin seeds. I put water in the pot, put a pumpkin half on the trivet and once again set the timer for 30 minutes. I kind of got busy again with the kids and let the pot natural release/warm for 15 minutes.

It was more firm than the other pumpkin I did, but not soft enough to scoop out the flesh. I put it back in the instant pot and cooked it another 6 minutes. This seemed to do the trick and the pumpkin skin came off really nicely.

For the second half of this pumpkin I decided to cook for 36 minutes and see if that was any better. I however got busy once again and let it natural release for 15 min. 

This seemed to be the sweet spot, at least for me. The flesh was soft and it was easy to take off the peel. 

Storage

After I cooked all the pumpkins I divided the flesh in 15 oz portions, put them in food saver bags and froze them. Everything I read said you can't can pumpkin puree because it is too thick to adequately heat enough to kill everything that could be lingering in it. Freezing seemed the safest way to store my cooked pumpkin. Maybe, just maybe next time I will cut the pumpkin in chunks and try canning it.

Things I learned:

1. Getting busy when using the instant pot will cause overcooked mushy food. Yuck!
2. The pumpkin was easier to handle and scrape out the flesh when the pumpkin seeds were removed prior to cooking. It was a lot less gooey.
3. Fresh pumpkin puree has a lot more water than canned. I might try next time to squeeze the excess liquid out. 

How I Made Pumpkin Puree with the Instant Pot

Small Pumpkin

1 cup water

Directions:

Cut Pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Save the seeds for later if you want roasted pumpkin seeds. Put the water in the instant pot place. Put the pumpkin on a trivet and place in the instant pot. Set the cooking time for 36 min and let natural release for 15 minutes. Remove the pumpkin from the pot and let cool until you can handle it without burning your hands. Scrape the flesh from the skin (be careful as the skin will fall apart pretty easily) and put it in a bowl. Mash and use as you would for pumpkin puree.