Easy, home made pumpkin puree from scratch and DYI pumpkin spice

This will be a short but useful post for those of you who want to make pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice at home from scratch! This post teaches you everything you need to know about home made pumpkin puree and DYI pumpkin spice!

You might wonder why make pumpkin puree from scratch when it is possible to buy can buy canned pumpkin?

Here are my top 5 reasons for making pumpkin pure from scratch!

1. You might live in a country where canned pumpkin puree is not available, like in most of Europe we make pumpkin puree from scratch. Also stores even in the US can easily run out of pumpkin puree in this time of the year. It is good to know that you can make it at home super easily and quickly with basically zero effort

3. It just tastes 100x better than canned version and that is not an exaggeration. It tastes fresh, sweet, full of flavours without additives. You can also control the type of pumpkin is used to make the puree for example mix different kinds of pumpkin with butternut squash

3. Roasted pumpkin can be used not only for making puree for pies, cheesecake etc. but it is a dish on its own or you can make a lot of different dishes with roasted pumpkin; soups, salads, pasta etc.

4. The process of roasting pumpkins feels absolutely heartwarming. It is sort of a ritual that will make you happy

5. Your kitchen will smell divine. There is nothing better this time of the year than the smell of freshly baked pumpkins!

How to make pumpkin puree at home from scratch?

Making pumpkin puree from scratch could not be easier!

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C / 392F

2. Clean pumpkin and take the seeds out then chop it into small pieces

3. Place the pumpkin slices into a tray on baking sheet

4. Bake for approx. one hour. Check with a fork whether they are done, they should be soft by after an hour

5. Let the pumpkin slices cool, take the skin off then mash with blender or food processor until it becomes a smooth puree

6. Store in fridge for a few days, maximum a week and use according to the recipe eg. with pumpkin spice!

What is pumpkin spice?

Absolutely everything is sold with pumpkin spice this time of the year, whether it is your coffee, cake or shampoo! It is so easy to make at home, there is absolutely no need to buy expensive, ready made spices. I literally us it on everything, soup, pies, cheesecake, cookie, cake, coffee, pancake! With pumpkin, apple, pear, pecan and so on! It is the best thing that can happen in October!

How to make pumpkin spice at home?

What if I told you that pumpkin spice is effectively a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. That simple! Honestly I would love to overcomplicate it but this is it! Simple, quick, delicious and smells amazing!

Mix 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 tablespoons nutmeg, 2 tablespoons ginger, 1 tablespoon cloves. Feel free to experiment with adding further spices; vanilla, tonkabean, cardamon, orange zest, Chinese 5 spices all could be a good idea!

Why not try my No-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe?! Click here