From Jack-O-Lantern Pie To Fairytale Pumpkin Pie To Pumpkin Spice Syrup

My in-laws bragged to me about scraping out a used jack-o-lantern of wax or soot buildup, cutting, boiling and puréeing their Hallowe’en Jack-o-lanterns and using that to make pie for the rest of the year. They also talked about making pumpkin pie out of carrots too.

After Erin and I got married, we did it to a certain extent but Hallowe’en pumpkins are rather pale and kind of lacking in the flavour department. We discovered blue pumpkins at some point and found they had a deeper flavour and colour. We also figured that baking the pumpkin got rid of a bunch of the moisture and intensified things.

Two years ago, we happened in at St. Lawrence farmer’s market where a vendor was selling slices of something called Musquée de Provence and priced by the 100grams. It had this deep orange colour and we could smell that it was indeed fragrant. I think we paid $40 or so for an entire pumpkin and yes indeed, it was fragrant and sweet after we processed it.

Last year was a dry year for that farmer and his field and we couldn’t seemingly make our schedules match up with his at St. Lawrence but low and behold, I found one at Galleria Supermarket for a little bit less than what he was charging. We did some looking up and discovered Musquée de Provence went by a few other names. “Fairytale pumpkin” was another.

So this year, Erin was perusing at Longo’s and came across this Fairytale pumpkins and they were $6 each.

Well, we had to pick some up and try it out and boy, we weren’t disappointed. Hoping a farmer somewhere in Ontario is making enough that this is worthwhile.

Getting them home, washing, cutting them in half and baking at 350F cut side up for 2.5 hours. There’s a lot of moisture inside one of these things and it collects nicely in the hollowed out interior.

No water added. This just pooled in the cut halves after 2.5 hours of baking….. What to do with all that sweet and fragrant pumpkin juice, eh? Considering it’s Pumpkin Spice season, what else but? After looking up some recipes for pumpkin spice syrup and roughly guesstimating amounts, I was off to make it.

Not pictured here is the addition of a cup of brown sugar and some additional boiling down.

Meanwhile, the pumpkin needed to be processed.

This stuff is crazy sweet for a pumpkin. Regardless of what people may say about pureeing down big vs small and ‘tender’ pumpkins, an immersion blender makes it into a smooth puree ready for bagging and freezing.

Pumpkin and spiced muffins, a New York Times recipe for pumpkin, chickpea and jalapeno stew and importantly, pumpkin pie for various things are going to be on the menu for the next year.