In the spirit of the season – Pumpkin Butter! I have made apple butter for 40 plus years and just love it. One year while we were on vacation on the east coast I discovered Pumpkin Butter. I am a real fan of just about anything pumpkin. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie and pumpkin butter fits right in there. You can take a plain piece of bread or a cracker and turn it into a seasonal flavor explosion any time of the year.
For me personally, I buy pie pumpkins, cut them in half – dig out the guts and roast them in my oven until soft enough to scoop out the flesh. Put I am sure that using canned pumpkin would also work well for this recipe.
Pumpkin Butter
3 cups Pumpkin
1 1/2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Apple Juice
1 T fresh Lemon Juice
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Cloves
In large saucepan, combine all ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon, do a plate test.
Plate test – Drop a tsp of the pumpkin butter mixture onto a chilled plate. Place the plate in the freezer for 1 minute. When you take the plate out of the freezer the butter should hold it’s shape and not have a watery ring around it’s edge.
If the pumpkin butter is done, remove from the heat. Can be canned or refrigerated. It will keep in the fridge like any other jam or jelly.
