Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Why it burns in a gas oven

This is the part nobody warns you about.

A gas oven heats from a burner underneath. That means strong radiant heat coming up through the base of your tray, plus a fair amount of moisture from the flame itself. An electric fan oven moves hot air around and the heat arrives much more evenly.

So in a gas oven the tray gets far hotter than the air above it. The cubes sitting directly on the metal catch that heat first, their undersides scorch, and by the time the centre of each piece is soft the bottom has gone from caramelised to burnt. Cutting it small does not save you from this on its own. It just makes it happen faster, because there is more surface touching the tray.

The trick: wrap it in foil

Fold the foil up and over the cubes and seal the edges, so the tray is a closed parcel rather than an open one.

Sealed like this, the pumpkin steams inside its own parcel instead of sitting exposed to the direct heat coming up through the metal. The burner underneath can only get at the outside of the foil, not the pumpkin itself, so nothing scorches while the inside works its way to soft.

Open the parcel for the last 10 to 15 minutes if you want the edges to catch some colour. Leave it sealed the whole time if you don't, and it will still come out right, just paler.

A few smaller things that help:

Middle shelf, not the bottom one. The lower you go in a gas oven, the closer you are to the flame.

A single layer, not a crowded pile. Crowded cubes trap steam unevenly against each other. Give them room inside the parcel.

A splash of water before you seal it. Two or three tablespoons. It turns to steam inside the parcel and keeps everything from drying out.

If your oven is electric and fan assisted, you can skip the foil. One tray, middle shelf, a stir halfway through, and it will be fine.

Peel it in wedges

Whole raw pumpkin is a fight against a peeler. Wedges are not.

Cut it into large wedges first, then run a sharp knife down each wedge to take the skin off in one or two strokes. It is faster and far safer than trying to peel or cube a whole round pumpkin on the board.

Aim for cubes of roughly the same size, about 2 to 3cm. Consistent matters more than precise. A large piece sitting next to a small one means one is still firm while the other has already caught too much colour.

How to tell when it is done

A fork into a cube, right through, with no resistance. The edges should look caramelised, a deep gold rather than pale, but not blackened.

Cube size decides the time more than anything else. Small dice can be ready in about 20 minutes, larger pieces can take 35, so start checking early and go by the fork rather than the clock.

Cooking off the water

Pumpkin holds a lot of water, and how much varies with the variety and how fresh it is.

If your puree looks loose, put it back in the pan you roasted or blended it in and set it over medium heat. Simmer it, stirring often, until the water has cooked off and it has thickened to the consistency you want. Ten to twenty minutes is usually enough. Stir more often as it thickens, because that is when it starts to catch on the bottom of the pan.

Once the water has simmered off, you have a beautiful homemade pumpkin puree, ready to use.

Tinned pumpkin is drained much harder than most homemade puree, which is why a recipe written for a tin can come out wet if you swap in your own without cooking off some of that water first.

Keeping it

In the fridge in a sealed jar for about five days.

In the freezer for about three months. Freeze it in the amounts you actually use rather than one big block, which means an ice cube tray or small tubs. Half a cup is a useful size.

Where to use it

In a pumpkin spice latte, in baking, in soup, stirred into yogurt, or as the base of anything you would otherwise open a tin for.

A spoonful with a little of my homemade pumpkin spice blend is the simplest thing you can do with it, and it is what I reach for most through autumn.

It really is this easy to make at home, and once you have a jar of it in the fridge, autumn tends to find a use for it.