Pumpkin Butter

Embrace pumpkin season with this easy to make homemade Pumpkin Butter recipe! Spread it on toast, mix into pumpkin pancake batter, or stir it into your coffee. It’s the perfect autumn-in-a-jar condiment that goes with just about anything!

We love pumpkin butter! It’s a super versatile spread that perfectly captures the essence of fall.

Every year we impatiently wait for Pumpkin Butter to arrive on the shelf at our local Trader Joe’s. But this year, we became a little too impatient and decided to just make it ourselves.

And wow! Total game changer! Not only is it super easy to make and available whenever we want it, but it really does taste better than the store-bought stuff, too!

As much as we love pumpkin butter, we do acknowledge it is passing craze. Pumpkin-mania burns bright and hot for a few weeks, but doesn’t last forever. At some point we hit our pumpkin limit.

So while other pumpkin butter recipes online are written for making an industrial-size batch, we decided to keep our recipe manageable by using just one can of pumpkin puree. Better to make another batch later than it is to have a few mason jars extra in the back of the refrigerator come mid-January.

Anyways, on to the recipe! If you’re ready to unleash the awesome power of pumpkin, then let’s get to it!

Ingredients

Pumpkin Puree: One can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!).

Sugar: White sugars seems to work best when reducing the butter.

Maple Syrup: Maple syrup adds a nice subtle flavor dimension that’s very “on brand” for fall, but we don’t want to add too much were it might compete with the pumpkin.

Apple Cider: Another fall flavor that helps round out this spread. It’s also the liquid that allows the pumpkin puree to reduce. You can substitute with apple juice.

Lemon Juice: A little bit of acidity is what’s needed to really help all the other flavors “pop”.

Pumpkin Spice: Store bought is easy, but you can make it yourself from cinnamon, clove, ginger, and allspice.

Salt: Very important. Just a little bit of salt can really help balance all the sweetness.

Equipment

Tall-sided pot or Dutch oven: As the pumpkin butter reduces it will start to sputter, erupting molten pumpkin butter lava all over the place. A tall sided pot will help reduce the risk this gets all over the place.

Splatter guard: In addition to a tall sided pot, we suggest using a splatter guard. Which lift up just enough to get a whisk underneath to stir periodically. The last thing you want is pumpkin lava in your eyes.

Mason Jar: This is the great way to store your Pumpkin Jar after you finish making it.

How to Make Pumpkin Butter Step-by-Step

Add all of the ingredients together into your tall-sided pot. Set the pot over medium low heat and simmer slowly, stirring occasionally.

As the mixture reduces, it will begin to splatter and sputter. A wire mesh splatter guard is highly recommended.

Continue simmering and occasionally stirring, until you the mixture reduces about about half and seems to be able to hold firm lines.

Remove from the heat and allow time to cool.

Best Way to Store Pumpkin Butter

We like to store our homemade Pumpkin Butter in sealable mason jars in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin butter that has been properly stored in a clean, sealed mason jar in a refrigerator should last for about a month. You can also freeze it for up to six months to a year.

Ways to Use Pumpkin Butter

One of the best ways to appreciate your Pumpkin Butter is to spread it onto a lightly buttered slice of toast. This is perhaps our favorite way to enjoy it because it allows all the fall flavors to really shine through!

But the uses for Pumpkin Butter are near limitless! Here are few more places to use it:

• Pumpkin Spiced Latte
• Pumpkin Pancakes
• Spread on French Toast
• Pumpkin Oatmeal
• Mixed into cookie dough
• Use in homemade Cinnamon Roll filling
• Mixed into Dutch Baby batter

Basically anything that would taste good with butter, will taste fall-tastic with Pumpkin Butter!