Pumpkin Puree - From Scratch

Roasting:
Gather and wash sugar pumpkins (the kind for baking, not jack-o-lantern making) These are usually smaller in size and darker in color.

• Preheat oven to 425º F 
  
• Slice off stem, then cut in half.  
• Remove the stringy innards and seeds. (Set aside to roast pumpkin seeds later)
• Lightly coat jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with edges) with spray, coconut oil. (I use a small amount of coconut oil on a paper towel to do this) or parchment paper. **
• Turn pumpkins upside down (flesh down / skin up) on the pan.  
• Place in center of oven to Roast. 
• Pumpkins are done when a knife can be inserted through the thickest part easily. Check after 1 hour. If they are not yet done check in 10 minute increments for another half hour.

Preparing Puree:

• Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to be worked with. 
• At this point the skin will peel off easily.  Remove skin and put soft flesh into a large bowl.
•  Puree with food processor or immersion blender until smooth.  

Use puree immediately or choose to prepare it for storage. I highly recommend an immersion blender for this type of process but if you don't have one a food processor works just as well. You simply have to plan on doing the pureeing in batches rather than everything all at once.

Storage:

• I choose to freeze mine so I place my freezer bag into a cup, folding edges over the side.  
• With a one cup dry measure I place 2 cups of pumpkin puree in each bag.  
• Ziploc all but one corner of the top of the bag. 
• Lay it flat on the table. 
• Press puree evenly in the bag until all air is removed and bag lays flat with puree filling entire bag. 
• Ziploc the corner and place flat into freezer. 

Thaw pumpkin in sieve to drain off excess water from freezing before use.

**Notice I do not add water to the roasting process. This is because most small sugar pumpkins (the best kind for puree) have plenty of water in them already. I find I get a really good consistency using the dry method roasting process and it saves me the step of having to drain the puree'd pumpkin through cheese cloth before storing.