Cookpot Pumpkin Butter

As a kid, I remember my mother making a pie out of our painted Halloween pumpkin. I thought it was novel because up until that point the only pumpkin I had in pie came from a can.

 Husband wanted to carve pumpkins for Halloween. I decided to paint my pumpkin and try my hand at cooking it later.

Pumpkin Butter fresh  from the freezer!

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I turned that Halloween pumpkin into pumpkin butter!

The results were delicious.

Being a lazy chef, I make pumpkin butter in the crock pot.

Being a budget chef, I use the medium size pumpkins we buy as decorations instead of buying a special smaller pie pumpkin. The pie pumpkins are a little sweeter than the larger however; as long as I add the right blend of pumpkin spices, (my favorite pumpkin spice is Trader Joe’s. I buy an extra bottle every October and use it in everything) I have not had a recipe with the larger pumpkin fail the taste test yet.

Pumpkin butter is a freezer jam type of recipe. If you are afraid of canning as I was, this is your project!

You should not can pumpkin butter because pumpkin is not acidic enough to can and keep properly – which I my mind is another reason to try making pumpkin butter instead of canning jam.

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Butter

You will need

1 medium size pumpkin

2 tablespoons of pumpkin spice - you can buy pumpkin pie spice here

4 cups of sugar

Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience. 

Make it!

1. Learn how to bake and puree the fresh pumpkin here if you are not sure how to do it.

2. Add 2 Tablespoons pumpkin spice and 4 cups sugar to the puree.

3. Let a cook on medium for 8 hours or over night to reduce the liquid if your pumpkin has a lot of water content. 

4.  Ladle the pumpkin butter into clean sterilized jars. Leave approximately ¼ inch of room from the filling to the lid of the jar for expansion in the freezer.

5. Wipe excess pumpkin butter from the outside of the jar. Cap the jar with the lid to fingertip tight.

6. Allow the pumpkin butter sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

7. After 24 hours, place the jars in the freezer.

  

I got about 10 jars of pumpkin butter out of one medium size pumpkin. Having so many jars of pumpkin butter in my freezer saves my bacon when I need a quick holiday hostess gift. I grab a jar from the freezer, make a recycled magazine bow for the top and I’m good to go.

Rather buy than DIY? Check out my pumpkin butter options - including my all time favorite, most perfect in all of the entire world brand of pumpkin spice - and more! - below!

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