After Halloween you’ve had your fun, the pumpkins are all carved and just sitting there waiting for something to be done with them before they go to waste. We in the UK especially, don’t often do much with our pumpkins. If they’re lucky they might make it to the compost.
So, what can you actually do with left over pumpkins? Well, there are actually a few things you can do with it, just make sure once you’ve pulled out all the seeds and the stringy inside, you’ll want to keep the flesh that’s beyond that. Simply peel the skin of the pumpkin away and cut the flesh of the pumpkin into chunks. Now there are a few things you could do with it, you could roast it with your Sunday lunch, or pop it in to a nice soup.
Pumpkin puree can be really useful, all you need to do is put the pumpkin cubes in a steamer of a colander set over a pan of simmering water. Then leave it to cook for 10 minutes, it should just slide off a knife easily. If it’s still a little bit hard leave it for another 5 minutes. Then you simply need to mash it or use a hand blender to create your puree.
Once you’ve created your pumpkin puree there’s a few things you can do, again, good for adding to soups, you might want to try your hand at dog treats, or how about making some delicious cupcakes? Here’s an easy pumpkin pie recipe to try at home:
Pumpkin pie cupcake recipe (makes 24 cupcakes):
Ingredients for Cupcakes:
280g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
110g butter (softened)
200g caster sugar
70g brown sugar
2 eggs
180ml Milk
250g pumpkin puree
Ingredients Cream Cheese Icing:
125g butter (softened – room temperature)
125g Icing Sugar (plus extra)
250g cream cheese
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Topping suggestions:
Homemade or shop-bought shortbread biscuit
Cinnamon Sugar
Grated Nutmeg
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 190 C (Gas 5). Prepare your cupcake tins with cupcake cases (pop a little bit of uncooked rice in the tin underneath cupcake cases to avoid a greasy bottom).
- In a large bowl sift your dry ingredients; flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix together, then set aside.
- Beat together the butter, caster sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, either with a stand mixer or hand mixer until light in colour with a fluffy texture. Gradually add in your two eggs, to make sure they are fully incorporated into your mix. Add in your milk, gradually again, and then finally add in your pumpkin puree and mix it all together.
- Stir your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients (again it is best to do this gradually) mixing until it’s all just incorporated (be careful not to overmix).
- Pour the cake mix into your cupcake cases evenly (tip: a good way to do this is with an ice cream scoop) – be careful not to overfill your cases, they need to be about 2/3 full or they could spill over.
- Bake your cupcakes in your preheated oven for 23-25 minutes until golden brown and the top of the cakes spring back. Once done, remove from the oven and leave them to cool down in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them and leave them to fully cool on a wire rack.
- As the cupcakes are cooling, it’s time to make the icing. Beat together the butter and cream cheese with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until smooth. Gradually add in the icing sugar - you may want to add more if it doesn’t seem to be thick enough but this will make it sweeter. Add in the vanilla extract and a little bit of milk.
- Once the cupcakes are cool, pipe the icing on top of the cupcakes, we use a large star tip nozzle, but you can choose whatever tip you like. For the finishing touches crush up some shortbread and sprinkle on top. You make like to dust the top with cinnamon sugar or some grated nutmeg.
Whatever you end up doing with your pumpkin, we hope you enjoy yourself and get something tasty at the end!