Baking your own pumpkin

 
I've always wanted to try baking my own pumpkin, and finally got around to it this year.  There are plenty of sugar pumpkins for sale, so I just bought a cute one and brought it home.  I found recipes online where people suggested a baking/roasting temperature of anywhere from 300-450.  The part that made me skeptical is that all of them including roughly the same amount of baking time.  They can't all be right!  I picked somewhere in the middle and split the pumpkin in half (not easy using my dull knives; really need to get them sharpened), and put it cut side down on the cookie sheet.


As you can see, I probably let it go too long. The shells were completely hard and sunken in, and there was some sugar-char on the edges. Still, I scooped it out and stuck it in the fridge, forgetting the very important step of pureeing it before adding it to recipes. That just made it more difficult to incorporate into my recipes. Next time I'll know better. The color was definitely less intense than the canned pumpkin I can find in the stores, and that makes sense, considering that many of the canned "pumpkin" you find is actually squash of a different variety (usually hubbard, I think). Here's to actual pumpkin in pumpkin dishes! Stay tuned for how I used it. I still have half the pumpkin left after using it in two recipes!