Pumpkin Butter - Easy Recipe

 

It is hard to believe it is the middle of September already and pumpkin items are in the stores!

During the pandemic, I purchased a case of pumpkin puree and am trying to use it up. Today, I came across a simple recipe for pumpkin butter using pumpkin puree. 

This recipe makes your house smell wonderful too!

I can't wait to add the pumpkin butter to my plain Greek yogurt for that "fall feeling!"

The recipe is simple and includes the following:

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon honey

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Stir all the ingredients together in a small saucepan and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat stirring constantly. Pour the hot pumpkin butter into a glass container, let it cool, and place the lid on top. 

Store the pumpkin butter in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin butter is a great substitute for preserves or apple butter!

A Sweet Yeast Dough -- Nondairy

A favorite recipe for a "traditional" yeast dough for bakery treats such as long rolls or shaped into three- cornered pastry called Hamantaschen. 

This yeast dough is fun to make and what is most important, it is easy to handle. It was not the holiday of Purim so I did not make hamantaschen but used the dough to make a prune-filled roll. I used canned prune filling for the dough as had it in my pantry and time to use it. The filling seemed a bit runny so I added a bit of honey, lemon juice, and ground almonds that I keep in the freezer.

This recipe involves letting the dough raise two times, doubling in size each time.

The ingredients I use for the easy- to- handle dough are as follows:

1 1/4 tsp yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar (or a bit less)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

2 cups unbleached flour -- plus a few pinches of flour to knead the dough

I mixed the yeast with the warm water and added a bit of the sugar and waited a few minutes until bubbles appeared. then added the remaining sugar, oil, egg and the two cups of flour.

I mixed all the ingredients and kneaded the dough until smooth and no longer sticking to the side of the bowl. I added a couple pinches of flour to keep the dough from sticking. I floured the bowl, covered with a kitchen towel and allowed it to raise for about an hour. 

I love parchment paper and lined a large cookie sheet with the paper. I rolled the dough on the parchment paper and the paper helped me roll the dough in a long roll.

I rolled the dough into a rectangle and added prune filling and some cinnamon to the middle,  rolled it up and put it in a cold oven to rise for another hour or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 375 F.

A reference to this dough is at:

Reviving a Yeasted Hamantaschen Recipe Nearly Lost to the Soviet Era — Jewish Food Society