Tackling the pumpkins

This week I tackled the two sugar pumpkins that had been given to us by a friend. I cut each pumpkin in half, spooned out the seeds and strings (saved the seeds for roasting), and placed the halves cut side down in a baking dish.

I added 1/2 cup of water to the baking dish, and baked the pumpkin halves at 450 degrees for 1 hour.

They came out looking like this.

Once cooled, I spooned the flesh into tupperware to sit in the fridge until I was ready to tackle this further.

The next day (only because I ran out of time the first day) I pureed all the pumpkin in the food processor

I mixed half the seeds with cinnamon and sugar and half with salt, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and roasted them for 50 minutes at 300 degrees

then I used 2 cups of pumpkin to make this bread

I still have 2-3 cups of fresh pureed pumpkin left in the fridge, so I'll definitely be whipping up another treat soon.

Pumpkin Bread
-2 cups whole wheat flour
-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-2 cups pumpkin
-1/2 cup oil
-1/2 cup applesauce (or leave this out and use an extra 1/2 cup of oil... but we like things on the healthy side)
-4 eggs
-3 cups sugar (I used brown because ants had infested my bag or white sugar)
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-2 teaspoons baking soda
-3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice/ seasoning
-1/2 cup water

Whisk salt, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and flour in bowl. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar and pumpkin until well mixed. Alternately add in flour and water until all ingredients are well mixed. Pour into 2 greased 9x5 loaf pans and bake for 60 minutes at 350. The texture and flavor are even better if you let the bread sit in the fridge overnight.

Shannon