Out to the freezer I went - yep, you read that right, the freezer! See in my crazy food world I use fresh pumpkin, not canned! This past fall when we were bustling about the pumpkin patches full of those bright orange gems, I gathered myself six perfect sugar pumpkins!
They are super easy to cook down and freeze, just cut them up into chunks (after seeding them, of course), place in a shallow (I use a 9x13 pan) baking dish with a bit of water and put them in the oven at 250 degrees for a bit (probably an hour to an hour and a half). You'll know their done when you put a fork into it and it slides right out. Let them cool real well, peel the skin off and run them through your food processor. Most all of my recipes call for 2 cups of pumpkin, so I put them in 2 quart freezer bags by the 2-cup portions, place the bags on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen you can remove them from the cookie sheet. Note to self...take my word for it and use a cookie sheet! If not, be prepared to pull frozen pumpkin from between the 'rungs' of your freezer shelf...not that I've ever had to do that or anything!
Honestly, you will never taste a pumpkin muffin, bread or pie that tastes better than those made with fresh pumpkin! And, did you realize how good pumpkin is for you? It's low in calories and FULL of disease fighting nutrients like alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, fiber, vitamins C and E, panthothenic acid, potassium and magnesium. I could go on and on...but really - I do love pumpkin and it's a great benefit that it is good for me too! Makes me feel a wee bit better about making a sweet treat!
So - here's what I did...using my tried and true pumpkin bread recipe, I swapped out the regular flour for my rice blend, adding the appropriate amount of xanthan gum.
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