Oh y'all! I wasn't going to do this.
No really, I was done canning for the season.
I mean seriously, how many variations of things to spread on toast does one family need?
But, well, Mandy mentioned pumpkin butter and then it popped up in one of the boy's readings, and then my guys saw all the pie pumpkins at the grocery store and well, we just couldn't help ourselves.
Mr. Blue Yonder, who, it should be noted, is a devoted fan of apple butter, proclaims that pumpkin butter is 10 times better.
Considering the rate at which our jars are emptying, I'd have to agree.
If you've never heard of pumpkin butter, let me just tell you... it's something like pumpkin pie in a jar. I have been tempted, more than once, just to get out a spoon and dispense with the toast all together.
Here's our hodge podge recipe, adapted from several internet sources (this being the closest) :
They were each about 2 pounds.
Then, we quartered and boiled them until they were very soft.
Next, we peeled the skin off and pureed the flesh in the food processor.
This yielded about 6 cups of pumpkin goo.
To that, we added 4 cups of sugar, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of regular cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of Saigon cinnamon for a little extra kick (you can just substitute plain cinnamon if you can't find the Saigon version), 1 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger. Then, of course, you mix it all very well.
After mixing, we cooked our pumpkin butter for another 20-30 minutes until it was nice and thick, like pudding, and ladled it into canning jars.
There is apparently much debate over the safety of canning pumpkin butter in a hot water bath. I'm of the opinion that it would probably be just fine, people did it for ages, but I had a little room in my freezer, so I just put it in there. Better to err on the side of safety, I guess.
It's disappearing so quickly though, I think we'll soon have room for a few more jars.
Lordy, isn't fall just delicious?
