Home Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling

This recipe is one my mom used for years. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, making a pumpkin pie was always a cinch because all we had to do was pull out a jar of Mom's home canned filling, add eggs and evaporated milk, bake and done. My sister, Rebecca, shared this recipe with me a couple years ago, along with her personal notes. She has been known to make arrangements with her neighbors to come around with her wagon on the morning after Halloween and pick up their jack o' lanterns to use in her canning in exchange for a jar of pumpkin filling. You can use any old pumpkin (or even butternut squash, which I like to throw in sometimes at about a 4:1 ratio) but the little sugar pumpkins are the sweetest and least watery. Make sure if you use a carved pumpkin that you either do your canning right away or cut it up and refrigerate so the exposed flesh doesn't rot. Cooked pumpkin can also be frozen for up to 3 months if you would rather cook and store it for canning later. If you are new to canning, I recommend reading up on it before canning, as I don't share all the finer points of the process in this post. A great resource is the Ball website.

Sugar pumpkins are fairly easy to
grow. Save some seeds from your
store bought pumpkin and try
planting them next spring. If space
is tight, you can grow them on a
trellis as long as you use mesh bags
(like those you buy onions in)
to support the fruit as it grows.

Start by cooking your pumpkin. I found that about 20 lbs. pumpkin yields about 19 c pumpkin puree, which will make just over 6 quarts of filling. Cut up your pumpkins (and/or squash) and remove the stem and seeds. Then you can either peel and boil it, or roast at 400° with the peel on for a couple hours then scoop the cooled flesh away from the peel. Baking tends to lend a nice roasted, caramelized flavor, so that's the method I prefer. Once your pumpkin is cooked, puree it in batches in a food processor until smooth and measure it into a large pot, taking note of how many cups you have. 

For every three cups puree, add the following:

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Bring to a boil, ladle into hot clean quart jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Put on the lids and process in a hot water bath for 1 hour 20 min (add 10 min for higher elevation). Allow to cool undisturbed on a towel covered counter top for 24 hours. Extra amounts of filling can be used as a spread like pumpkin butter, or used in place of pumpkin puree in any recipe that calls for it (for instance, my chocolate chip pumpkin cookies). Just remember to reduce the sugar and spices in the recipe, as those are already in the filling.

Pumpkin Pie (from Home Canned Filling)

1 quart home canned pumpkin pie filling

4 eggs

1 13 oz. can evaporated milk

1 pie crust

Extra filling can be made into pumpkin custards,
like these topped with whip cream
and drizzled with nuts and chocolate.

Preheat oven to 425°. Pour jar of filling into a mixer bowl, add eggs and evaporated milk and blend well. Line a pie plate with an unbaked pie crust. Pour in the mixed filling up to within 1/4 inch of the top. Cover the crust edges with foil or a pie crust shield. Depending on the size of your pie plate, there will be enough filling left over to pour into as many as 4 ramekins or custard cups to bake as crustless pumpkin custards. Place the filled cups in a deep pan and fill with water up to the level of the filling. Carefully move the pan to the oven so the water doesn't splash into the cups (or you can pour the water in after you move it to the oven, but I find I splash just as much water when I do it this way!). Bake pie and custards for 15 minutes at 425°, then reduce to 350° and bake about 45 min more, until there is hardly any "wiggle" when you move the pie. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake is Back!

Is anyone else excited that it's October?? Or better yet, pumpkin season? Well I will be the very first to admit that I am super excited. In celebration of this wonderful month I'm going to feature a variety of posts about this beloved flavor that conjures up images of flame-colored leaves, cute Halloween decor, warm inviting spices, and cozy holiday feasts. I'll share some of my favorite seasonal items from "pumpkin central" Trader Joe's, share my mom's home canned pumpkin recipe, and finally the recipe for my all-time favorite autumn treat: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese frosting! But to kick things off, I'm going to start with a pair of pumpkin cheesecake reviews, because you need fair warning to get in to a Cheesecake Factory before these seasonal favorites disappear!

Pumpkin Pecan

A year ago when we moved within 5 minutes of a Cheesecake Factory, it became one of our favortie date night getaways. We'd grab a slice of cheesecake to go, drive to the nearby movie theater, and eat our dessert covertly before heading in to catch a show. This was kind of where I got the idea to start reviewing cheesecakes because we had so much fun analyzing all the different varieties. Since it was Fall, one of the cakes we sampled was the Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake. This cheesecake is the solution to the age-old post-holiday feast dilemma: which pie to have? There you are, already full from eating way too much at dinner, and then they have the gall to break out the desserts and start asking, "pecan or pumpkin?" Are you kidding me? You want me to choose between the smooth mellow goodness of custardy pumpkin and the caramel sweet nuttiness of pecan? I admit, I am biased towards the pumpkin, but that is still a tough call. After feigning a lack of desire for any dessert, if you're like me you usually end up taking one small slice of each (...and then end up taking another small slice of each). Well, now you can have both together, slapped one atop the other in a medley that seems so natural you'll wonder why you never stacked your pies that way yourself. The bottom layer has pecans in a rich caramel-custard filling, and on top is a smooth delicious layer of pumpkin cheesecake, a little lighter than your typical pumpkin pie, but every bit as flavorful. The whole thing is topped by a gooey pecan studded glaze. Each bite gives you a sample of each of the two holiday pie favorites. A tad on the rich side, I recommend sharing this one if you have it after a meal.

Pumpkin

It wasn't until this year that we tried the straight up, plain ol' Pumpkin Cheesecake. I wasn't disappointed. Pumpkin pie is my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving, hands down. We could skip the turkey for all I care as long as we have that pie, piled with mounds of sweetened freshly whipped real whip cream (no squeezy-whip allowed). I was afraid the cheesecake version would be really cheesecakey, meaning it would be dense and taste a lot more like cream cheese, but the flavor was delightfully light, like a slightly fluffier version of pumpkin pie. Of course, there is a greater filling to crust ratio, so depending on how much you like the crust that could be a good or bad thing. I thought it was great. It's even garnished with a few pecans which adds a nice texture, but it is still a lot simpler and lighter than the Pecan Pumpkin, and better suited to eating after a big meal.

It was a sad day last year when the holidays ended and these two flavors disappeared. I can't tell you precisely when that happens, so if you want to try either variety, hurry in. They are both available right now and should be at least through November. After Thanksgiving passes though, all is not lost, as we have the Peppermint Bark Cheesecake to look forward to! Watch for that review in a couple months.