In my last post I mentioned that my mother and I prepare pumpkin and freeze it for the holidays. I thought that I would give you a step by step in cooking off the pumpkin and preparing it for the freezer.
It’s pretty easy, but takes a bit of time. I think it is well worth is.
I use long neck pumpkin but you can use any type of baking pumpkin that you like. A sugar cube pumpkin is used in the pictures in this post.
Cut your pumpkin in half and clean out the seeds and the orange webbing and discard. (You can clean the seeds and roast them in the oven. They are quite good.)
Once you have the pumpkin cleaned, you can cut it into large chunks and place it on a baking sheet with about a cup of water.
Place the pumpkin in a 350 degree oven until the pumpkin skin starts to bubble and the pumpkin is tender. About 30 minutes.
Remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow it to cool a little so you can work with it.
After the pumpkin is cooled, peel the shell and place the cooked pumpkin in a strainer.
Allow the pumpkin to sit in the colander for a few hours so that any excess water can drain from the pumpkin. (Pumpkins hold a lot of water. If you don’t do this step your pumpkin pies will be watery when you bake them )
After your pumpkin is drained, place the pumpkin in freezer bags (you will need 1 cup of Pumpkin for each pie).
8 Freeze for up to 6 months.
Enjoy!!