How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree - Gemma's Bold Baking Basics Ep 24

Hi Bold Bakers! Pumpkin puree can be found in so many recipes around the holiday season, but it's not always widely available in every country. So what do we do when we find ourselves in this situation? We make our own. All you need are some little pumpkins, these are called sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins and you can find them in most stores around the fall holiday season. Put your pumpkin onto a chopping board and then with a sharp chopping knife, all we're going to do is chop him in half. Now be very careful when you're chopping pumpkins or any kind of a squash because they're very hard and you want to make sure you protect your hands. Easy does it when it comes to chopping these little guys. Once you have cut him open, we're going to take off the stalk and then just scoop out the center. Some people like to roast these little seeds off and then just eat them, put them on top of soups, stuff like that. So that's up to you. Once you've cut up as many pumpkins as you want to use, just place them cut side down on a baking tray lined with tin foil. And that's it. Very simple. You don't need any oil or anything on them. We're going to pop them into an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius and let them roast for a solid hour until they're nice and tender on the inside. Our pumpkins are out of the oven and they smell amazing. I can tell that they're baked because they've darkened a lot and they've shriveled. Another way to tell that they're done is if you stick a fork into the skin, it'll go right through and you can feel that it's tender. If yours need a little bit more time, then just leave them in the oven. For right now, I'm going to set these guys aside and let them cool down. Once your pumpkins are roasted, we need to put them into a food processor or you can mash them by hand. We just need to get really nice and smooth. So with a spoon, just go ahead and scoop out the flesh. Now what I like to do when I'm making homemade pumpkin puree is make as much as I can at one time because this freezes really well. So rather than just roasting off 2 pumpkins, roast off 6 or 8 and then just put it in bags in the freezer in maybe a certain measurement and then you'll have it there for all of your fall baking. And just a little side note, doggies love pumpkin puree. Okay so now all you want to do is puree until it's nice and smooth. It only takes a few seconds. During this process, it's not a bad idea to take off the lid and then just go in with a spatula and push down the puree. You want to make sure that everything gets nice and pureed. On with the lid and then a few more seconds. Perfect. As you can see, the puree is nice and smooth. So now we're going to put it straight into our airtight container. So now you can store this in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and it also freezes really well for up to 6 months. Now you can use this in my homemade pumpkin ice cream, my homemade pumpkin pie mug cake, and then also my pumpkin egg rolls. And I have lots more Bold Baking Basics videos just like this one so make sure you go check those out.