At this time when the earth is giving up its final bounty for the year, pumpkins are one of the last remaining vegetables to harvest. They store well in cold weather and last a long time. They can be served hot or cold, sweet or savoury; on their own, made into soup, baked in all sorts of breads and stuffed with all manner of goodness.
Fruit butters are spreads made with fruit cooked to a paste, then lightly sweetened. The most common varieties are apple and plum ( plum butter with rum for Christmas chocolate fillings with marzipan, YUM! ) but pumpkin makes a tasty alternative, especially if you have more pumpkin puree than you know what to do with.
It is an especially nice way to keep the flavours of autumn alive as fall turns to winter.
You will need:
3 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup apple juice
1/2 – 1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
Begin by finding a place of gratitude for time in the kitchen, available ingredients, working equipment and your skills to complete the task. Your personal todo list may be lengthy but many people are lacking one or more of the components above and are not able to preserve food for future use. Begin with gratitude, welcome the compassionate spirits and begin.
Three simple steps and your house will smell wonderful!
- Turn your crock pot onto low and add the ingredients.
- Simmer 4 – 5 hours, stirring every hour and more often as the mixture gets thicker.
- Bottle.
It really is that easy. All you need to do is remember that it is bubbling away in your crockpot and that it will need to be monitored and stirred every so often until thick.
Changing out the brown sugar for white sugar will lighten the finished product and will loose a little of the caramel flavour. Keeping to the lower end of the sugar range will highlight the pumpkin flavour.
The first use that comes to mind is probably on warm crusty bread but try mixing pumpkin apple butter into yoghurt and serving on porridge or as filling for a batch of sweet rolls, a substitute for maple syrup on pancakes, a spoonful into your coffee (with a dollap of whipping cream) or as an easy topping on cheesecake tarts.
The options are many, varied and tasty.
Pumpkin Apple Butter from My Kitchen Wand
