Fall fun

I LOVE fall!  I love the leaves changing colours, I love the crisp mornings, and most importantly I get to bring all my sweaters out to the front of my closet.  I love how delicious my coffee (or tea) tastes when I can enjoy it hot.  I think my most favourite part of fall is the pumpkin patch.  I had never been to one until 2 years ago.  It is so much fun.  I usually come home with 4-8 pumpkins of various shapes and sizes.  We do a few jack-o-lanterns, but the rest I use for cooking and baking.   I love cooking and baking with pumpkin.  I make everything from pumpkin loaf, to pumpkin syrup (for those morning lattes), to pumpkin butter.  Once my pumpkin is cooked I freeze most of it so I have fresh pumpkin all year round.
For today's for Tasty Tuesday I am going to share with you my favourite addition to toast, fruit, pancakes, yogurt....the list really goes on and on! :)  PUMPKIN BUTTER!!!  I know a lot of people that do apple butter in the fall, and while that is delicious I prefer pumpkin butter.  My favourite way to have it is as a dip for fruit.    It also makes a great hostess gift for Thanksgiving Dinner :)

Pumpkin Butter
Adapted from Smitten

Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple juice & 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (this can be adjusted to be more sauce than juice)
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree or 4-4.5 cups fresh Pumpkin Puree*

Juice of half a lemon

Directions:

Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently to make sure it doesn't burn. Adjust spices to taste. Stir in lemon juice, or more to taste. 

Once cool, pumpkin butter can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. 

*To make your own fresh pumpkin puree cut pumpkin in half, clear out all seeds and gunk.  Place upside down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (you can brush the inside with oil), and bake for 45-50 minutes at 350F.  You may need more or less time depending on the size of your pumpkin.  It is done when you can poke through the skin with a fork and it is tender.  Remove all the pulp from the skin and place in blender.  Puree it all up and you have your very own fresh pumpkin puree!