One of the Library staff documented the transformation of a pumpkin (courtesy of the Bayliss Library bake sale) into mini pies.
Bonnie Hubbard pumpkin
Half the squash lengthwise
Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to remove the innards; save the seeds to bake off later
Place the cleaned halves into a preheated 350° oven, bake until extremely soft; test with a fork
Remove from oven and let cool completely
It should be possible to peel the skin from the cooked squash; or use a sharp edged spoon to scrape it free
Place this in your food processor or blender- don’t include any of the outer skin- parts of the squash may appear stringy; If it has been cooked enough, this won’t matter.
Use the puree setting and continue until it is as smooth as canned. It will not be as dense, because it hasn’t been machine compacted.
Use in place of canned pumpkin in any recipe, in equal measure.
Here we’ve used a basic chocolate butter cookie for the crust; you could also choose a traditional pie crust. Then add your favorite pumpkin pie recipe, substituting the fresh pumpkin for canned in equal measure.
These individual pumpkin pies have a chocolate butter cookie crust disc at the bottom of the baking cup….and obviously, you can make cookies out of the left over dough!
The library staff can confirm that they were delicious!