Pumpkin Recipes You Should Try This Autumn:

Maple Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkin recipes tend to be either elaborate baked goodies or sweet pies, which is what makes this maple pumpkin butter a welcome change when it comes to preparing autumn food. You just need a saucepan, seven ingredients, five minutes of preparation time and half an hour of simmering. What comes out is a thick, velvety, lightly spiced spread that works on breakfast toast, on top of pancakes, as easily as it works as a gift in a small jar. If you like apple butter, think of this as its autumnal cousin. Pumpkin butter has the same smooth, spoonable texture, but it's lighter and not overly sweet. The reason is that instead of using water or cream, the pumpkin puree is cooked with unsweetened apple juice, which brings out the pumpkin flavour just well enough that even people who aren't very enthusiastic about pumpkin flavour tend to enjoy it. Pumpkin pie spice does the rest of the flavour work, adding a warmth with vanilla rounding things out, and a quarter cup of maple syrup adds a subtle, caramel-like depth without hijacking the flavour of the butter. Everything in this pumpkin butter goes into a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan and comes up to a soft boil over medium-high heat. Then the heat drops, the lid goes on slightly tilted so steam can escape, and the butter simmers for 30 minutes with an occasional stir to keep things moving. The mixture becomes very thick and bubbles and spits as it cooks, so you need a deep pot and a tilted lid to keep the stovetop clean. Adjust the thickness with more apple juice. Once the liquid is done cooking and has infused, it is cooled and used as an infused butter.