What kind of Pumpkin to use for baking?

I did an experiment to see what is the best pumpkin for cooking and baking.  I used:

1. Cinderella Pumpkin
2. White Pumpkin [Lumina]
3. Pie or Sugar Pumpkin
4. Standard Carving Pumpkin.

Best color goes to Cinderella.
Best taste goes to Pie or Sugar Pumpkin.
Best texture [not runny and grainy] goes to Pie or Sugar Pumpkin.
Best to peel Pie or Sugar Pumpkin.

As you can see I clearly liked the Pie or Sugar Pumpkin best.  These pumpkins are bred to have a higher sugar content and less water.  The next one I would recommend is Cinderella.  It has a beautiful color, was ok to peel [not easy, but not overly difficult], and was slightly on the more runny side.

I didn't even attempt to puree the white pumpkin.  Seed catalogues state that white pumpkins are orange on the inside, while this one was white.  I'm not about to use white pumpkin flesh in baking.

At the Forest we make Pumpkin pie, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin cookies, and Pumpkin Ginger Snaps so we do go through a lot of pumpkin.

Lorissa

Gourd vs Squash vs Pumpkin

I was at a 2 day Farmers' market in Winnipeg.  The most common question I got was "How do you cook a gourd?"  Well you can't cook a gourd they are just for decoration.  Now what is the difference between a squash and pumpkin, that's a bit tricky and I had to do some research online to really understand the difference.

What is the difference:

Here is a good link to check out Pumpkin vs Gourd vs Squash.

Well to confuse things even more a pumpkin is considered a squash.

Pumpkins are generally orange and round and can be carved.

Squash come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Basically you can't eat gourds, but you can eat pumpkins and squash.

Lorissa

"Scare"Crow Night.

October 18 and 25 from 7 pm to 10 pm come to the Forest and have some fun in the dark.  Walk the path in the dark and see what you might bump into.  After the walk in the dark, take a zip down the zip line in the dark.  After you've been scared come and sit by the fire while sipping a hot chocolate.  Admission is $11.50 per person.

This is a children friendly event.  There is no bats, blood, skeletons, etc. anywhere in the Forest.  At the Forest we believe in wholesome family friendly fun.  Make sure to bring a flashlight when coming down.

For more information please check our website at Penner Pumpkins.


Lorissa