Jack-o'-Lanterns and Slugs

 I'm not sure what the affinity is, but it's a recurring theme.

 

...There's no shortage of slugs in Georgia, and Halloween is usually before a serious freeze.

Low-Carb Pumpkin Buns

This started off as an adaptation of Paratus Familia's pumpkin scones recipe.  I made this a few years ago and it worked well with flour.  I wanted to try substituting almond flour for most of the wheat flour to see if I could produce a lower-carb version that would meet the needs of people with diabetes or insulin resistance.

I ditched the glaze and just swapped out two cups of flour for two cups of almond flour:

2  c almond flour

1/2 c flour

6 Tb sugar

1 Tb baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 c butter

1/2 c pumpkin puree

3 Tb heavy cream (or milk; see below)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

First I dumped all of the dry ingredients into the bowl--making a very pretty display--then added the butter.

I let the butter soften, then cut it in with two forks.  I don't have a pastry cutter, but the two fork method works pretty well.  If the butter is soft, an entire stick can be cut into the flour in about five minutes. 

I mixed all of the wet ingredients, then added them.  I have now made three batches of these.  Twice I have used condensed milk, three tablespoons, undiluted.  Once I used heavy whipping cream.  I don't really notice a difference.

Until this point, I was expecting to make almond flour scones.  I formed a circle of dough and tried to cut a wedge, but the dough didn't have enough cohesiveness to hold together as I lifted it and tried to put it on the cookie sheet.  At this point I realized I was going to be making pumpkin biscuits, soft cookies, or buns, but not scones. I baked them at about 17 minutes at 400 (I have learned, by the way, that my oven runs about 20 degrees cool--meaning I actually baked them at 380; 17 at a true 400 degrees might toast them a little too much).  They turned out reasonably well.

It may be that I need a greater percentage of wheat flour to get them to hold together, or it could be that making a drier dough would help.  One way to do that would be to substitute powdered whole milk in place of regular (or condensed) milk.  I may try that. Or I can just live with buns instead of scones. The flavor is fine.

More on Processing Pumpkins

A couple of years ago I wrote about processing pumpkins.  My method wasn't very sophisticated.  I haven't tried putting the whole thing in the oven yet, but I have improved my approach to cutting the beasts. I think it was Erica Strauss, of nwedible.com, who gave me the idea.  I made an initial cut, then used a rubber mallet to finish the job.

First I removed the stem area, Jack-o'-lantern style.  Then I started the knife and hit the knife at the top of the blade/base of the handle.  It took a few taps to get most of the cut done on one side; I just rotated it as I went.  No seeds fell out as it was almost inverted.  I did the same on the other side, then split it open and processed as usual--face-down in a baking dish with some water, 45 minutes at 450.




I think the only way easier would be the whole-bake approach.  That would simplify cutting it, but then there'd be a hot steaming mess with seeds still inside.  It is comparatively easy to pull those out when the flesh is still hard.

This process was a success.  It took about 15 min to bisect and  clean each pumpkin rather than 20 minutes (or more) just to cut it.  It was a lot less tiring and dangerous, too.

Processing pumpkins

This is one case where I definitely don't use state of the art methodology.  I do it the old-fashioned way--slowly, awkardly, and potentially painfully.

The standard approach is to cut the pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds, then put the halves face-down in about an inch of water and bake at 450 for 45 minutes.  This will soften the flesh, which can then be scooped out and used.  This entire procedure can also be used for butternut squash, which I consider to be essentially the same for all practical purposes.

Cutting can range from difficult to horrifically hard.  It all depends on the rind.  The pumpkins I processed last month were very tough.  That may be good for storage, but it's not so good for cutting.  The problem is that the pumpkin is small, and moves around as you try to get leverage on it.  And a knife--I tried three--isn't the best tool for tackling something like that.  A saw or hatchet would've been better.  A clean hacksaw has possibilities and I'll consider it--though that would lead to fragments of rind embedded in the flesh along the cut.  When you're putting great force on a sharp object partly embedded in something that's unstable, there's obvious potential for injury.  It took 20 minutes or more to cut two pumpkins; you can see that the edges of the cut are pretty ragged.

Then I put them in the oven and all went well.  After 45 minutes the flesh had softened so much that it almost fell out of the shells, which themselves seem to have some potential for future use for... something.

There may be a better way.  Jill Winger at The Prairie Homestead suggests putting the pumpkins in the oven whole (at 350 for 45 minutes to 2 hours).  At that point they cut open easily and can be processed as above.  I might give that a shot next year...or later this year when I tackle the butternut squash on the kitchen counter.

So far the only thing I have done with pumpkin and squash is make puree for various dishes--pumpkin pie (shown above), pumpkin casserole, and pumpkin scones (the latter courtesy of the Paratus Familia Blog; they also work well un-iced).  The pumpkin casserole recipe I use (from somewhere online that I don't remember) is:

2 c pumpkin puree

1 c evaporated milk

1 c sugar

1/2 c self-rising flour*

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients (mixing the dry ingredients first helps avoid lumps in the flour) in a casserole dish.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour (covered for 45 min, open for 15).

*In lieu of self-rising flour can use 1/2 c all-purpose flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt

This comes very close to being pumpkin pie filling minus the crust, so it is almost a dessert in itself.

One other thing about processing pumpkins: the seeds.  There are a lot of ways to roast them; I just toss them in some salt water for a few minutes, then put them in the oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes.  They usually turn out okay.

Last, what to do with all of the puree?  It takes a pound to do a pumpkin and about the same for the casserole (2 cups = 1 pound, more or less).  I got about four pounds from the two pumpkins above (which is more than normal).  I got about six pounds from a tan cheese pumpkin last year.

I put the puree in one-pound lots into containers and freeze; they stay good for about a year.  Over at Dehydrate to Store there's a video on dehydrating pumpkin puree; I haven't done it yet but it looks like it has some potential as an alternative to freezing.  Pumpkin puree is apparently one thing that cannot be safely canned (even in a pressure canner), so alternative methods are needed.  The fresh pumpkins themselves (uncut) don't keep all that long; butternut squash will last longer, but at some point it will probably make sense to process before you are ready to use them.