Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip: Fluffy and Delicious

 Growing pumpkins in our as close to organic garden as you can find, I have used them in many ways from pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin black bean burgers and now pumpkin cheesecake dip which is fluffy and delicious.

First seeing the recipe for pumpkin cheesecake dip on facebook, I instantly clicked on the link for the recipe. I scanned it and saved the page. While I was at work, Mozilla shut down and I lost my page.

I started searching pumpkin dip and realized there were many versions; however, I ended up combining two recipes to incorporate the ingredients I remembered. Now while my fresh cooked pumpkin is not as thick as the canned stuff, I will continue to use it as I know where these pumpkins come from and how near organic they actually are.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

Ingredients for Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip: Fluffy and Delicious

 

·       1 8-oz package cream cheese; softened

·       2 cups of powdered sugar

·       1 tsp Orange Juice

·       2 cups of fresh pumpkin or 1 15-oz can of pumpkin

·       1 tbsp ground cinnamon

·       1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

·       1 8-oz container of whipped topping; thawed

Instructions to make Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip: Fluffy and Delicious

 

1. In a medium bowl or blender, combine the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth.
2. Gradually mix in the pumpkin whether you use fresh cooked or canned.
3. Add the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and blend until smooth.
4.  Fold in the thawed whipped topping.
5.  Chill the pumpkin cheesecake dip until serving with apples, crackers or cookies.

Alternate recipe for Pumpkin Fluff Dip Recipe:

• 1-15 ounce can of pumpkin
• 1-16 ounce whipped topping;thawed
• 3-small boxes of vanilla pudding
• 1-3 tsp of pumpkin spice; spice to personal taste

Freezing Pumpkin after Making Homemade Pumpkin Pies

Now that you have cut your pumpkin to make your homemade pumpkin pies, you need to either can or freeze the remaining pumpkin to use in other recipes or for holiday pumpkin pies.
Fresh organic pumpkins will only store without freezing for so long. However, if you cut your pumpkin to make a pie, you have to do something immediately to preserve it.
Freezing your freshly cooked pumpkin is easy and makes it handy for baking your next pumpkin pie, bread or doughnut recipes.

“This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.” According to nutritiondata.self.com

Pumpkin is low in calories and fat but high in vitamin A. Pumpkin also has traces of many vitamins and minerals.

 Ingredients to Freeze Pumpkin:

• Freshly cooked pumpkin
• Large stockpot/pressure cooker
• Freezer containers or bags
• Measuring cup
• Marker pen

Instructions to Freeze Pumpkin:

1.     Using a large stockpot or pressure cooker, cook down the pumpkin. Scrape the meat into a large bowl. Use a mixer or blender to smooth out all the lumps.

2.     With a measuring cup, scoop the pumpkin into either your freezer containers or freezer bags.

3.  Mark your freezer container or bag with a marking pen so you know what and how much is in it. After it is in the freezer for a few months, you might actually forget, so marking the containers is essential.

4.     Place the containers in your freezer for the next holiday or occasion to use pumpkin in a recipe. There is nothing like fresh organic pumpkin in your bread or pie recipes, therefore, freezing the pumpkin that you've grown only makes perfect sense to me.

***Update: After learning to cook pumpkin the hard way; over the years I have learned to do things quicker and smarter. Cut the pumpkin in 1/2, remove the seeds and place in a 375 Degree (F) oven and bake 1-1 1/2 or until soft. 

It's Pumpkin Time

Grand daughter in 2009

 It's pumpkin time once again in Indiana. How do you plan on using your home grown pumpkins? Are you going to make pumpkin bread, Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin pies or simply going to carve a face into it?

Ex-Large pumpkins are great for carving a jack-o-lantern, however, they can still be used in baking.
If you do use a large pumpkin to make some holiday pies, what do you do with the rest?
The answer is freeze it for making other recipes later on in the year. 
Read more: Freezing Pumpkin