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Memory of the Past Pumpkin Puree recipe

  • Writer: kalianieg
    kalianieg
  • Sep 24
  • 5 min read
Pumpkins on a pumpkin farm

Happy Latino Heritage month, and today I’d like to celebrate with a memory. Growing up I used to stay at my grandparents house pretty often. Which is a blessing because once you get older you yearn for those times spent at grandma's house. Things are never truly the same, but that's okay. My pumpkin fascination started when I was young. Unaware at the time that the delicious vegetable in my grandmother's homemade soup was squash. From the species of Cucurbita pepo, the Acorn squash as well as other squashes are commonly used in Latino American cooking. Squashes are indigenous to Northern and Central America.


When my grandmother cooked with them, she would cut big chunks of the squash with the skin on and let it cook in the soup absorbing all the good flavors. Both the flesh and skin are edible, as well as the seeds when roasted. I was always delighted when my grandmother would give me a big chunk of the squash with my soup. It was sweet and tasty, almost melting in your mouth when eaten. It's a comfort food that I would constantly think about because no one can make soup like grandma does. It wasn't till years later when I kept budgies, that I realized it was squash. One of my birds loved to eat many kinds of fruits and vegetables, they were very open to trying everything. I decided to one day buy them a squash to tear up. I went to the market and picked up an acorn squash, brought it home and cut it open. To my surprise seeing it cut into pieces made me realize that this was the beloved squash I’ve been thinking about for years. Even though I’ve found the missing link to a great soup, I still have never tried cooking with it for myself. In fear that it wouldn't be the same as my grandmother's soup. Why should I butcher my grandmother's memory? 


Around the same time I developed an interest in baking with squash, specifically that of spaghetti squash because I heard it is very healthy and makes a good pasta. Since then I have also baked with other squashes like butternut squash, pumpkin, and zucchini. Making things like breads, pies and spaghetti. Squashes make me happy and because of that in many ways I feel connected to my roots. Today we celebrate the delicious pumpkin.


Around this time of year, the cafes and stores start prepping for pumpkin spice everything. I will admit I have fallen victim to all the overpriced pumpkin pastries. Funny enough, these items are flavored with flavorings with little to no traces of pumpkin in them. We have knocked down the pumpkin spice flavor to just the spices. Seeing the people going crazy for pumpkins is a blessing and a curse, we are over saturated with all these cafes and restaurants trying to sell their own version of a pumpkin spice latte. At the same time there have been items I never would have thought would taste good as pumpkin flavored. This year I have decided to make my own pumpkin syrup to create delicious drinks and baked goods.


To make the sauce, first you need to bake fresh pumpkin in the oven for about an hour till they are well cooked. The roasting causes them to become sweeter as they cook. Once cooled, you will then spoon out the flesh and smash them into a puree. Then using the cooled puree, you add it to a pot with water and sugar, using a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio bringing it to a boil while stirring occasionally then turning the heat low to a simmer for about 20 or so minutes (I cooked it for 15 minutes). There's no real visual indicator to know when it is done, but it should thicken slightly and it should look soupy. The pumpkin should have cooked down. You just want to make sure that the flavor of the pumpkin is infused in the syrup. Next, I strained the syrup into a clean jar and let it cool before putting it in the fridge. Once cooled it should be thick almost like honey. I am then left with very sweet pulp from the straining. This leftover pulp reminded me of jelly. Jelly is made in a similar way but with a longer cooking time. Since I didn't want it to go to waste, I used the sweet pulp as a spread on toast. It was good, do not expect jelly consistency as it has a grainy pulp texture, but it was easy to spread on my freshly toasted toast.


As the syrup was cooling, I created my first drink, it was a homemade pumpkin latte. It was very sweet. I think what was missing was the actual spices used for pumpkin spice. So, the next time around I will make my latte with spice. Aside from cakes and other desserts it's hard to figure out how else to use these items that aren't purely desert. I have great ideas for cookies and cakes. After making some cookies using my syrup as a honey replacement. It made me realize that the syrup can be used as a sweetener replacement. I wasn't able to taste much pumpkin, then again pumpkin doesn’t really have a strong taste to begin with. Though it would be a good addition to deserts you are already making with pumpkin. Just like coconut deserts, it is hard to have a coconut flavor if you just use coconut essence. From my experience you need to use as much coconut products as you can in order to have a flavorful coconut dessert. Switch the table sugar for coconut sugar, add coconut flakes, use coco flavoring, and switch the milk for coconut milk. It's the same Idea. I also think the syrup would make a good, sweet glaze on sugar. Stay tuned to my next blog see what else I made with pumpkins.


Pumpkin Syrup

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of water

  • 1 cup of sugar

  • 1 cup of pumpkin puree

Directions:

  1. In a saucepan add the sugar, water and pumpkin puree, mix all together on medium high and let it cook till it starts boiling. Stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick.

  2. Once it boils turn the heat down to low letting it simmer for about 20 minutes. The pumpkin pulp should condense in the pot. Let it cool a bit before transferring.

  3. When the syrup is slightly cooled, for a smoother consistency, strain the syrup into a glass container. I used a small mason jar.

  4. Continue to let it cool on the counter before transferring into the fridge. Always choose a wider container as it cools faster than one that is tall and slender.

  5. Enjoy our syrup as a sugar replacer, making drinks like lattes or adding them to your baked goods when baking pumpkin desserts.

Thank you for reading! Check out below for other pumpkin related Items. Happy fall!

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