Making homemade pumpkin butter is one of those seasonal pleasures that the whole family can enjoy. You enjoy the process and proudly use the fruits of your labor in all kinds of yummy recipes; they enjoy the smells that emanate from the kitchen as the pumpkin and spices cook down to perfect deliciousness, and of course they love the finished product!
For roasting directions, hop over to my Baking with Real Pumpkin post, then add the other ingredients listed below. Below are the directions for using a slow cooker. Either way, the resulting pumpkin butter is a great spread for biscuits or toast and also a wonderful baking ingredient in recipes like cakes, pies and cookies! And of course, feel free to use canned pumpkin, just make sure it’s not “pie filling,” but is 100% pure pumpkin instead!
Homemade Pumpkin Butter Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lb. “pie” or “sugar” pumpkin (makes ~1 lb. of pumpkin butter) OR 15 oz can of pure pumpkin
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 4 Tbs. pure maple syrup
- 1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
Instructions
Cut the pumpkin in half with a large, sharp knife. Scoop out the inside seeds and strings with a spoon and discard (you may roast the seeds for a delicious snack, if you like – see my roasted pumpkin seeds recipe for the how-tos).
Cover the bottom of the crockpot bowl with water. Cut the cleaned pumpkin into quarters and place in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for approximately 4 hours, or until fork tender. Remove from the crockpot and set aside to cool.
Once cooled enough to handle, cut the meat from the rind of the pumpkin and return to the crockpot (emptied of any remaining water). Purée with a stick blender or using a large food processor. Add other listed ingredients and and stir. Keeping the crockpot on low, continue to cook until the desired consistency is reached: if the purée is too thin, cook with the lid off, stirring occasionally; if it is too thick, thin by adding more apple cider by the tablespoon and cover with the lid.
Allow to fully cool before spooning into jars and refrigerating.
If you use a 15 oz of canned pumpkin , would the other portions of the recipe remain the same? Thanks in advance!?
Hi Catherine – that’s a great question and I’m sorry I didn’t think of giving that information in the post originally. I’ve added it now. You would keep all the proportions the same for a 15 oz. can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling). Enjoy!!!
~jules
For the editorial staff, the correct spelling is Purée, my spell-checker stops on Pureé
Your recipe s look delicious
If I were to use canned pumpkin rather than fresh, how much would I use?
Hi Nic, one 15-oz can of pumpkin puree would work here.
I am so excited to see all new recipes. Thanks so much. Cathy
I hope you put my recipes to good use, Cathy!
You can’t can pumpkin. The FDA has determined that pumpkin is too dense to be canned properly. BUT, you can freeze it. My daughter and I made a batch of pumpkin apple butter yesterday and did just that.
Good to know that you can freeze pumpkin butter, Karen!
You can process pumpkin butter, consult your canning books. Or get Jacky Clays canning book, She is an extremely knowledgeable lady when it comes to this stuff. You can get her book at Backwoods Home Magazine. Well worth getting, it has a lot of old tiimey canning recipes adjusted for modern methods.
Sounds delicious! Can this be canned for pantry storage?
Hi Nichole, I don’t know why you couldn’t can the pumpkin butter as you would with anything else. That would allow you make a large batch all at once and not lose any to spoiling-sounds like a great idea to me!