Pumpkin Butter

Did a can of pumpkin puree somhow survive the holidays, and is now lingering in your cupboard? Homemade Pumpkin Butter has the power to satisfy even the most diehard pumpkin spice craving. You can go on living your best pumpkin spice life into the dead of winter. Pumpkin spice is never out of season!

Pumpkin Butter

Recipe by Make It Like a Man!
Makes

3

cups

Ingredients

  • 1 can (29 oz.) pumpkin puree

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar

  • 3/4 cup apple cider or juice

  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger

  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

  • 1/8 tsp ground allspice

  • Dash of ground cloves

  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

  • Combine all ingredients in a med-large saucepan. Use a kitchen ruler to measure the depth of the mixture.
  • Bring mixture to a boil over med-high heat (setting 6 out of 9), stirring frequently-to-constantly. Reduce heat to med-low (setting 3), and simmer, stirring constantly, until reduced by half, 30-40 minutes. (Be careful, mixture is inclined to scorch and spatter.) Taste for seasoning.
  • Cool, then refrigerate.

Notes

  • Substitute water for the cider.
"Pumpkin Butter," from Make It Like a Man!

Intro

Although some pumpkin butters might contain butter, most typically don’t. It, along with its apple, pear, and peach cousins, is called “butter” supposedly because of its buttery texture. Just how buttery it gets is correlated precisely to your patience. You need to cook it down so far that it couldn’t be considered a sauce. Once you arrive there, you can continue for as long as you like, to get it more and more condensed.

Social Learning: tips and tricks

As the pumpkin butter cooks, it will be inclined to spatter significantly: onto the stovetop, onto you, onto the floor. Also, it will be inclined to scorch. Stirring constantly with a flexible spatula will prevent bubbles from forming and scorching from taking place. If it fails to, lower the temperature. However, if the temperature falls too low, it will take forever to reduce.

Pumpkin puree is one of the few foods that I’d rather have canned than fresh. I’ve pureed fresh pumpkin before. It takes forever. It is kind of fun, but in the end, if you really, really work at it, you’ll get something that’s … indistinguishable from canned. “But what about all those preservatives?” you ask. Another surprise: canned pumpkin puree lists only one ingredient: pumpkin.

Adult Lunchbox

Definitely take pumpkin butter with plain Greek yogurt to work. Spoon it on top of the yogurt, tightly seal the container, and it will make a luxurious snack or lunchtime dessert. It will satisfy your pumpkin pie craving completely.

The Backstory

Sometime in October, I always make a point of snatching up a few cans of pumpkin puree, because if you wait until November, it can be hard to find one, and you can’t really have a proper Thanksgiving without pumpkin. Often, I’ll have extra cans that make it past the holiday, and I’m always on the prowl for ways to use them up. Making pumpkin butter is one of my favoites. Is it because it’s is so good on toast, and toast is one of my favorite breakfasts? Is it because pumpkin butter on plain Greek yogurt tastes close enough to pumpkin pie with whipped cream to make me feel as satisfied as if I’d had a big slice? Or is it because I could just eat it by the spoonful, right out of the jar? Yes, yes, and yes.

I like to store pumpkin butter in repurposed one-cup jam jars, which would make such great gifts. The USDA recommends that you do not can pumpkin butter at home, but so long as the lucky person on the receiving end of this gift can toss it into the fridge fairly soon after having received it, you’re golden.

Outro

“Pumpkin spice” has extended itself so far beyond fifteen minutes of fame, that it seem as though it’s going to be a long-time fixture. But there are better reasons than trendiness to make pumpkin butter:

  • You can adjust the spice blend to hew so close to your preference that is might as well be genetically bonded to you
  • It’s so verstile: on toast, biscuits, crackers, yogurt, or ice cream; in smoothies and lattes, as a topping for cakes or muffins
  • It has a long shelf life
"Pumpkin Butter," from Make It Like a Man!
Pumpkin Butter

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Food in Jars, Serious Eats, Skinny Taste. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. Pumpkin pie has always been not only my favorite pie, but one of my favorite foods, period. I cannot believe that, to my delight, I’ve seen it bloom into an actual season of the year, bounded by Back to School on one side, reaching its apotheosis just before Halloween, and stretching out to its Thanksgiving boundary in late November. There’s been a price: “back to school” now seems to begin in mid-summer, and I recently heard someone refer to Halloween as “the beginning of the holiday season.” 

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55 thoughts on “Pumpkin Butter

  1. I do not care for pumpkin, but oddly I do like pumpkin butter. I have never made it, but I know I have a lingering can of pumpkin puree. I think this might be an excellent use for it.

    • Our taste buds can be to funny at times! I love tomato sauce, but I’m meh about tomatoes (unless they’re fresh from the garden) and don’t like tomato soup at all.

  2. That pumpkin butter looks so delicious and rich. What a great way to use up extra tins of pumpkin puré! I can certainly see this as a topping for cheesecake!

    • Oh, I so agree. In fact, I turned some of it into a pumpkin mousse and topped a sheet cake with it.

    • Thanks, Judee! Yes, easy! You just have to be careful about the scorching and spattering.

  3. I’ve always enjoyed your insights and suggestions, such as this: “I’ve pureed fresh pumpkin before. It takes forever. It is kind of fun, but in the end, if you really, really work at it, you’ll get something that’s … indistinguishable from canned.”

  4. It looks great! I used to make various butters but nobody ate them because nobody ate toast! I love the taste of melted butted on toast topped with pumpkin butter. It’s so good.

  5. Mark loves apple butter, so I bet he would love pumpkin butter. You made it easy by using canned — but I have a fresh pumpkin I got at the market last week — I will roast it up for your pumpkin butter! Then I can make pumpkin empanadas, too!

    • I love apple butter, too! And I also love pumpkin butter. So that is obvious proof that Mark will, too. 😉

  6. Your pumpkin butter looks delicious. I can see where the yogurt with pumpkin butter spooned on would taste like pumpkin pie. I may have to try this. I love pumpkin pie.

  7. The whole North American fascination with pumpkin and flavouring pumpkin or adding pumpkin flavour to things is not really understood in Australia. We recognise the zing of ginger and cinnamon plus other spices, but pumpkin butter and pumpkin spice are foreign concepts. While pumpkins of many varieties are loved here, I suppose with the lack of a Halloween tradition which occurs in spring and not when pumpkins are in season, it makes it difficult.
    That said, as our cultures learn more from others, there is a gradual adoption of Halloween as a “thing” especially the kids marauding the neighbourhood expecting some sort of confectionary gift. Despite this, we are yet to see pumpkin spice being offered in our coffee yet. Maybe it will evolve more here.

    • I believe that pumpkin is native to North America, so that explains some of the fascination with it here. It’s interesting how traditions shift when they move from culture to culture. My husband, who grew up in Hawaii, says that Santa arrives on a surfboard! And why not? So perhaps Halloween in your part of the world should be associated with strawberry pie! And strawberry lattes!

  8. I could eat pumpkin butter, and all things pumpkin into the summer! You butter sounds so perfectly warming and delicious. 🙂 ~Valentina

  9. We don’t tend to buy canned pumpkin here, I never have, because pumpkins are plentiful, but this is a such a different way to serve it with all those beautiful spices. Looks lovely Jeff.

  10. This Pumpkin butter is a delightful treat that captures the essence of fall in a jar. With its rich, buttery texture and warm spices, I can see myself spreading this on toast anytime!

  11. Hola. Esta mantequilla me ha encantado, alguna preparo también, pero nada que ver con esta, que es más elaborada y queda muy fina. Me la apunto.
    Un saludo.

  12. I usually keep a few cans on hand year round because it’s good for getting things moving when my dog is constipated. I’ve been making fresh bread a lot lately and you’re right, pumpkin never goes out of season. I think this would be amazing to have for my morning bread and tea to sweeten the meal up a bit.

  13. ¡¡Hola Jeff!! Tu mantequilla de calabaza tiene que estar deliciosa. Yo sólo he hecho la de manzana y está para comértela a cucharadas y no dejar nada en el tarro, así que imagino que la de calabaza tiene que estar también muy, muy rica. Me ha gustado lo de acompañarla con el yogur griego sin añadir nada más, le dará el dulzor justo al yogur. Besitos y feliz fin de semana.

    • I think you have a lot of likeminded people out there! I hate the trendiness, but I’ve always loved pumpkin spice.

  14. I agree that pumpkin spice is never out of season! 🧡 I honestly make and eat pumpkin recipes all year, especially pumpkin chili. Now you’ve got me craving pumpkin butter! We just used up the last the some apple butter I made before the holidays. Time to make some of this yummy stuff for a treat! I can eat it with a spoon too. 🙂

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