The best cooking pumpkins are the small, fine-fleshed sugar (or "pie") varieties, weighing 3 to 8 pounds. Use these in pies and custard-type dishes. Larger jack-o'-lantern pumpkins have watery flesh and are best used in soups, stews, breads, cakes and cookies.
A pound of raw pumpkin yields a cup of cooked (76 calories). Cooked pumpkin is a good source of fiber, potassium, protein, complex carbohydrates and vitamins C and A.
To make fresh pumpkin puree, wash, halve and seed a pumpkin. Scrape out the stringy flesh with a metal spoon. Place the pumpkin on a lightly greased baking tray, skin side up. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until the skin is soft and the flesh is tender. Remove it from the oven and cool. Spoon or scrape the flesh from the skin and put it through a food mill, or puree it in a food processor. Refrigerate until ready to use.
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1 can (16 ounces) solid pack pumpkinLine 9-by-13-inch baking pan with waxed paper. Mix pumpkin, milk, sugar, applesauce, egg and cinnamon; pour into pan. Evenly over the pumpkin mixture: Sprinkle dry boxed cake mix, then nuts; drizzle melted butter. Bake 50 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Invert onto a tray and peel off waxed paper. Cool and cut into 24 squares.
1 can (13 ounces) evaporated skim milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 boxed yellow cake mix with pudding
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup melted butter
Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 200 calories, 9 grams total fat, 3.5 grams saturated fat, 20 milligrams cholesterol, 210 milligrams sodium.*
