Quick And Easy Pumpkin Recipes
I’m sharing five quick and easy pumpkin recipes you will love to make! Grab your apron because these are my family’s and friend’s favorite pumpkin recipes! Here’s the deal: I start thinking about what I can bake when it gets cold outside, which sounds yummy. I always bake my homemade whole-wheat bread, but some pumpkin cookies sound fabulous right now.
The pumpkin chocolate chip recipe makes a ton of cookies (like eight dozen), a great amount for a party or to freeze some for later. Of course, what neighbor wouldn’t love a plate of homemade cookies, right? I bet you can smell the pumpkin cookies baking very soon worldwide!
I also have some canning tips for pumpkins and squash below. I have taken classes from the USU Extension service to make sure I know the most up-to-date safe canning tips. If the person you are taking lessons from or reading a post from someone who has NOT received their “Master Preserver Canning Certificate,” take a step back and rethink what they are teaching. I take these classes for a reason: to be certified and to teach the world safe canning tips. Let’s look at these pumpkin recipes now.
5 Pumpkin Recipes:
1. Pumpkin Muffins
- 1 egg (slightly beaten with a fork)
- 1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1-1/2 cups white bread flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
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Preheat oven to (375°F) = (190°C) degrees.
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Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredien mixture. Stir as little as possible.
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Spoon the muffin mix into the greased muffin tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
2. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 3 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1-1/4 cups butter (softened)
- 29- ounce can of 100% pure pumpkin *not pumpkin pie mix
- 6 cups white bread flour or freshly ground hard white wheat
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1-12- ounce package chocolate chips (I like dark mini chips)
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Preheat oven to (400°F) = (204°C), Grease your cookie sheets or use parchment paper.
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Cream the sugar, eggs, butter, and the canned pumpkin until blended.
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Add the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate chips, to the creamed mixture above.
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When blended, slowly add the chocolate chips.
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Drop by teaspoonful size scoops onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at (400°F) = (204°C) degrees for 10-12 minutes.
3. Pumpkin-Zucchini-Carrot Cookies
- 3 cups Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1-1/4 cups Butter (softened)
- 29- ounce Can of 100% pure pumpkin (*not pumpkin pie mix)
- 1 cup Raw grated carrots
- 1 cup Raw grated zucchini (drain the excess water by pressing on the grated zucchini
- 6 cups White flour or freshly ground hard white wheat
- 3 teaspoons Baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Cream of tartar
- 3 teaspoons Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
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Preheat your oven to (400°F) = (204°C). Grease your cookie sheets or use parchment paper.
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Cream the sugar, eggs, butter, and the canned pumpkin with grated zucchini and grated carrots until blended.
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Add the remaining dry ingredients to the creamed mixture above.
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Drop by teaspoonful size scoops onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at (400°F) = (204°C) degrees for 10-12 minutes.
4. Easy To Make Pumpkin Soup
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons freeze dried onion (not reconstituted, or 1 whole onion peeled and chopped)
- 1- inch chunk of ginger (peeled and chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped or equal amount of garlic powder (I used garlic powder, one tablespoon)
- 2-15- ounce cans of pumpkin puree *not pumpkin pie mix
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Freshly grated nutmeg (to taste)
- 1-1/2 cups whole milk (cream or half and half works, too)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 1/4 cup sugar-optional
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In a medium-sized saucepan, sauté the onion, ginger, and garlic in the olive oil until tender.
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Add the pumpkin puree, chicken broth, cinnamon, sugar, and freshly grated nutmeg.
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You can use regular nutmeg to substitute the freshly grated nutmeg.
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Simmer all the ingredients for about 15-20 minutes.
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Gradually add the milk during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Leanne’s 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins
- 1 Box Spice cake mix (dry powder ONLY) 15.25 Ounces (I prefer Duncan Hines Brand)
- 1 -15 Can Pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
- Pumpkin Spice to taste (optional)
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Preheat your oven to (350°F) = (176C). Grease your muffin tin or use paper muffin cup holders.
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I like to use my Kitchen-Aid mixer because it makes the batter fluffy, but a hand mixer will also work great.
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Combine the dry cake mix with the can of pumpkin puree and mix until fluffy and creamy.
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Add the ((optional) pumpkin spice, if desired and beat until smooth and fluffy.
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Scook evenly into 12 muffin cups and bake at (350°F) = (176C) for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Pressure Canning Pumpkin and Winter Squash-Cubed Only:
This information is from the USDA Complete Guide To Home Canning Bulletin #539, and I quote:
Quantity: An average of 16 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 10 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints, an average of 2-1/4 pounds per quart.
Quality: Pumpkins and squash should have a hard rind and stringless, mature pulp, ideal for cooking fresh. Small-size pumpkins (sugar or pie varieties) make better products.
Procedure: Wash, remove seeds, cut into 1-inch-wide slices, and peel. Cut the flesh into 1-inch cubes. Boil for 2 minutes in water. Caution: Do not mash or puree. Fill hot jars with cubes and cooking liquid, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust the headspace if needed. Wipe rims with a dampened, clean paper towel. Adjust lids and process the squash.
Drain the jars and strain or sieve the cubes when making pies are prepared. Please check with your local State/County Extension Service for pressure canning times and pressure (pounds) per your local elevation.
My favorite chocolate cake by Linda
You cannot safely “pressure can” pumpkin puree or squash puree:
Please be careful when canning pumpkin or squash. We purchase the canned pumpkin for our family. I trust the safety, and there you have it. I used to can a lot of stuff, but not pumpkin. Watch your local stores for my favorite one, Libby’s 100% Pumpkin. It goes on sale a few times a year, and that’s when I stock up. Let me know what your favorite pumpkin recipes are. May God Bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Pumpkin Bread Muffins Depositphotos_679211016_S By Bhofack2
These recipes look so good! We have lots of pumpkin too! We may have a chance to need our food storage soon. Hurricane heading our way here in FL. Sometimes it takes time for services to come back up…but we WILL have pumpkin muffins without services! Love this recipe. Printing it out! I keep hard copies of good recipes as the internet will go down if the electricity does.
Prayers for everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew. Hope your safe, Debbie, and enjoy the muffins.
Hi Mary, I am glued to the TV watching the Hurricane Matthew path. Prayers are indeed needed for the families and workers involved with this hurricane. May God bless them, Linda
I have never heard anything about not canning mashed pumpkin. My mother-in-love used to can it as did my husbands Aunt and Grandmother. They pressure canned it and no one got sick. In fact their pumpkin dishes were the best ever. I know a lot of people now save the pumpkins in a hill or hole in the ground like you would potatoes.
Hi Jackie, thank you for the 5 stars, my friend. You know a lot of canning guides have changed over the years. You can pressure can chunks of pumpkin but not puree. It’s a USDA safety issue. Thankfully no one got sick in your family. I bet they were the best pumpkin dishes ever! Homemade is always better. Just be safe when canning. Linda
Thanks for publishing my easy, 2 ingredient pumpkin muffin recipe. After the first of the month, I will work on my pumpkin protein bar recipe by actually measuring things!!! Will let you know.
Had to have my kitchen range replaced last week so now I have a reliable oven! Think I will make something pumpkiny today!!
Hi Leanne, thanks for the 5 stars, I’m going to go pickup a spice cake mix! I want to make those pumpkin muffins, I think I did before but never officially wrote the recipe out. Yay! Thank you for sharing! I would love to make some protein bars, keep me posted and I will publish your recipe. Linda
These RECIPES look SO WONDERFUL! Too bad our family is violently allergic to eggs and cinnamon and nutmeg!! Well, I will experiment and find something else to use, that’s all. Thanks, Linda!
Hi Jess, its rough when family members have allergies to certain foods. Linda
Sugar Pumpkins (baking/cooking)are less prone to be stringy than field pumpkins(Jack O Lanterns), and pumpkins can be stored well in the root cellar. But won’t last as long as Winter Squashes. Pumpkin, Acorns, and Butternut have a thinner skin than those warty winter squashes. If the skin gets nicked in any way or bruised, they will spoil quickly. They have to be stored on a dry surface with air circulation under and around them. We raised our own sugar pumpkins and Winter Squash and stored them this way. At Halloween we drew Jack O Lantern faces on big sugar pumpkins (with black Magic Markers) to set on the front steps. Then put them back in the cellar 1 for Thanksgiving, the 2nd for Christmas. She used to cut them up, scrape out the seeds and the visible strings, then bake the pumpkin pieces in the oven until soft. Then scrape the pumpkin into a strainer and press it through. No more strings. The seeds got set aside for toasting. Baking and straining, in instead of boiling results in a dryer, less watery, purée. It can be served with butter and cinnamon or other sweet baking spices, or plain as a side dish vegetable. Or used for soups (raw cubed pumpkin is also great in any stew, or Winter Salad). The purée is perfect for and baked dish. You have control over the moisture this way too. If it’s too dry you can add orange juice, Apple Juice, cider, or water to moisten it to your preference. The juice won’t over whelm the pumpkin flavor, it just adds a background accent. A little unsweetened applesauce works well too.Especially when you want to reduce the sugars in the recipe. Pumpkin and applesauce are naturally sweet, and just don’t need the tons of sugar that a lot of pumpkin recipes call for. I generally use a little honey instead of the sugar. But when making pumpkin pie, use a recipe formulated for honey/maple syrup. Custard is a little tricky when substituting between dry and wet sweeteners. It can affect the setting up. So let someone else do the experimenting. Otherwise a slightly short measure of honey is interchangeable with the sugar in most baked goods.(Honey has a denser, more sweetening power).
Hi MaryAnn, oh my gosh, I love hearing you grew sugar pumpkins and winter squash, what a blessing to harvest those! And store them! Yummy, you have given us many ideas, thank you my sweet friend! Linda