Don’t throw your pumpkin away — get creative with these tasty sweet treats.
Charity Hubbub discovered in a recent survey over half of pumpkins set to be carved this year will remain uneaten — that’s a staggering 12.8 million.
Laid end to end, the uneaten pumpkins would stretch 2,816km, which is almost the same distance as travelling from John O’Groats to Land’s End – and back again.
Don’t let your pumpkin go to waste – they’re so versatile and make the basis for some fabulous sweet treats.
Pumpkin pie
Ingredients
For the pastry:
175g plain flour, sieved
85g butter
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
For the filling:
200g light brown sugar
0.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
0.125 tsp ground allspice
0.5 tsp ground ginger
2 large eggs
450g cooked pumpkin, mashed
375ml milk
Method:
- Rub the butter into the flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then add egg yolk and water and mix to a firm dough.
- Knead lightly and roll out to line a 22cm flan case. Bake “blind” in preheated oven 200°C/180°C fan for 10 minutes.
- While the pastry case is baking you can prepare the filling. Combine sugar, salt and spices in small bowl; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs with the pumpkin. Add the sugar mixture and beat again until combined.
- Mix in the milk.
- Pour the filling into the pie crust and return to the oven. After 15 minutes turn the temperature down to 180°C/160°C fan and bake for a further 45 minutes, or until the filling is set and you can insert a knife into the centre and it comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Pumpkin and raisin loaf
Ingredients:
200g light muscovado sugar
4 large eggs, separated
200g finely grated
raw pumpkin or squash flesh
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
100g raisins
100g ground almonds
200g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Generous grating of nutmeg
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a loaf tin, measuring roughly 10 x 20cm.
- Use an electric whisk to beat the sugar and egg yolks together for 2-3 minutes until pale and creamy. Lightly stir in the grated pumpkin, lemon zest and juice, raisins and almonds.
- Combine the flour, salt and spices, and sift these in. Don’t stir, but fold the batter gently together. This is important to keep air in the cake.
- Beat the egg whites until they can hold soft mountain peaks. Beat a heaped tablespoonful of egg white into the cake batter to loosen it a little, then fold in the rest as lightly as you can.
- Tip into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake for about one hour or until a fork or knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.