Low Sugar Pumpkin Butter

This is what I did with Ginormous Pumpkin Number One, or GPN1 for short. GPN2 and GPN3 will be dealt with early next week. Thank goodness they don't spoil quickly!

I found a recipe here that looked easy because it was all done in the crockpot. It worked out great, but here's some advice: start this early in the morning or right before you go to bed, like the recipe says. I couldn't get my proverbial "stuff" together to get it done in the morning and I knew I was going to be tired at night, so I started it at about 4 p.m. I had to turn off the crockpot, let it cool a bit, and complete the final steps the following day. I'm sure my refrigerator didn't like cranking out all the extra juice to cool down the crockpot! I'll notice it on my bill next month, I'm sure.

The directions for cooking the pumpkin before beginning the pumpkin butter appear here at my Day 6 guest post on HappyToBeAtHome.net. After I scooped out the flesh, I pureed it with a hand blender.

This turned out AMAZING! My hubby said, and I quote, "It's like pumpkin pie FOR BREAKFAST." Trust me, you will want to use a spoon to put this on your toast, biscuit, or crumpet (I've never actually eaten a crumpet, but I imagine the pumpkin butter would be bloody smashing on it, and yes, I was British in a former life, so I'm sure I ate a lot of crumpets then).

I froze the remainder of my pumpkin butter because I do not have a pressure cooker. Canning pumpkin is not recommended unless you have a pressure cooker because pumpkin is a low-acid fruit.











Low Sugar Pumpkin Butter
modified from pumpkinpatchesandmore.org

6-7 quarts of pumpkin puree
2 T ground cinnamon
1 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground allspice
3 c sugar, divided
3 c Splenda, divided

With towels, cover the areas your crockpot will be near to avoid spatter. Fill the crockpot up with pumpkin puree, leaving two inches of room at the top. Add 2 c sugar, 2 c Splenda, and stir to combine. Set crockpot on Low heat and cover loosely with lid to vent and leave to cook for 6-9 hours or until puree has reduced volume by half. I'd suggest you leave it overnight. It is not necessary to stir.

Add remaining pumpkin, sugar, and Splenda. Stir to combine. Cook until it reaches desired consistency. If it is too thin, remove lid and leave to cook until desired thickness is reached.

Puree with hand blender until pumpkin butter is smooth. I froze my pumpkin butter in disposable plastic containers, like Gladware (because I don't expect it to be around for long), but any freezer-safe container will work. Enjoy!!