Pumpkin for Baked Goods from an Actual Pumpkin

One time, at Thanksgiving, my Aunt Mary Jo made a pie from actually pumpkin.  I remember it being the most amazing pumpkin pie ever.  Since then I have made a few pumpkin treats from actual pumpkin, like muffins and pie that turned out amazing as well.  Actually Rachel made the pie, I just prepped the pumpkin.

I have had the best luck starting with a pie pumpkin, a friend once had me start from a different type but it really wasn't great.  They look like a basic carving pumpkin but are a bit smaller, and should be labeled as a pie pumpkin.  Preheat the oven to 350° and line a cookie sheet with tin foil to reduce clean up.

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the guts, I usually save the seeds for roasting, as if this wasn't enough work already.  The pumpkin should be fairly well cleaned.  Bake it upside down for up to 2 1/2 hours.  This one baked for 1 hr 45min.  I could tell it was done because I could poke a fork in from the outside all the way in.

While cooling the skin will pull a way and then it can just be peel off.  So make sure you cook it long enough, otherwise you will be scooping it out from the inside, which is less fun.

Then you just mash the pumpkin. 

So that one pumpkin made 6 cups.  I will usually substitute 2 cups for one can of store bought pumpkin.  Also I will double the spices in the recipe, I assume that the store bought stuff comes with spice including so to get good flavor more has to be added.  It is important to sample the baked goods to make sure that you are putting enough in.

(those of you coming over for Thanksgiving should be excited because we are going to have 'real' pumpkin pie! and if my co workers are lucky then will get some muffins)