Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

These roasted pumpkin seeds are easy to make and extremely delicious.

1 1/2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Place seeds in a shallow baking dish.

Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Pumpkin Spiced Butter

This pumpkin butter makes a delicious compliment to breakfast or a cup of tea.

1 (15 oz.) can solid pack pumpkin

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and cook over MEDIUM heat (about 25 minutes); stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick and like the consistency of spreadable jam.

Keep remainder refrigerated.

Pumpkin Pie

1. Cut your pumpkin in half.

2. Take out the seeds

3. Cut up the pumpkin into thick slices, pare the outside and cut again down into small pieces.

4. Put it into a large pot or saucepan with a vary little water; let it cook slowly until mushy.

5. When soft, set the pot on the back of the stove on very-low so it will not burn, and cook slowly, stirring often until the moisture is dried out and the pumpkin looks dark and red. It requires cooking a long time, at least half a day, to have it dry and rich.

6. When cool enough, press through a potato masher or sieve.

7. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Filling Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp packed brown sugar
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt
• 16 oz of solid homemade stewed pumpkin, pureed
• 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3 large eggs, beaten.
• 1 T Apricot Preserves to spread over crust.

For Filling:

1. Mix first 6 ingredients in bowl quickly, mixing mixture has no lumps.
2. Blend in stewed and pureed pumpkin, whipping cream, sour cream and eggs.Spread preserves over crust; pour in filling.
3. Bake until filling puffs at edges and center is nearly completely set, about 55-60 minutes. Cool. Cover with tinfoil; chill until cold. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour or wheat flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• dash of kosher salt
• 1 stick of cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 cup of ice water

1. Blend first 3 ingredients in food processor. You want to give it a quick mix so that they are all equally dispersed.
2. Add the butter and process until pea-sized lumps form.
3. Add cream and process again until moist clumps form that resemble biscuit dough.
4. Gather dough into ball, flatten into disk.
5. Wrap in plastic wrap ; chill at least a half hour.

Pie Assembly

1. Roll out dough onto a floured surface to 14-inches around.
2. Transfer dough to 9-inch pie dish.
3. Cut around the pie, trimming any overhang to an inch.
4. Crimp or fold overhang under.
5. Freeze 15 minutes.
6. Line crust with foil, pressing firmly and wither blind bake with beans or blind bake by poking tons of tiny holes with a fork throughout the crust.
7. Bake until sides are set up. This takes about 10-15 minutes.
8. Remove foil and beans.
9. Bake crust until light golden brown, about 10 minutes more.
10. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
11. Spread preserves over crust; pour in filling.
12. Bake until filling puffs at edges and center is almost set, about 55 minutes.
13. Cool, cover and chill.

Pumpkin Bread

1 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
3-4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, and eggs and mix until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients except the nuts or chocolate chips. Mix 3 cups of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add as much of the 4th cup as necessary to achieve the proper consistency (moist, but thick enough to stand a spoon in). Add the nuts or chocolate chips and stir in.

Pour or spoon the batter into greased muffin tins or bread pans. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick poked into the center comes out dry. At sea level, muffins should take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, small loaves between 25 and 30 minutes, and full sized loaves between 50 minutes and 1 hour.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin purée
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs

Preparation

Grease and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin and oil.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; add pumpkin mixture. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves of pumpkin bread.