FAQs
The Sugar Pie Pumpkin is often considered the crème de la crème of cooking pumpkins. Its deep orange flesh is sweet, smooth, and creamy, making it perfect for pies, soups, and purees. This culinary gem pairs beautifully with warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, creating irresistible autumnal flavors.
What is the best type of pumpkin for baking? ›
Choose The Right Kind
For cooking, you'll want to use sugar pumpkins (also called pie or sweet pumpkins), which are small and round. Long Island Cheese pumpkins, which are more oblong and can look like a wheel of cheese, are also good to eat.
What's the best pumpkin to use for pumpkin pie? ›
Sugar Baby Pumpkin
Also known as Sugar Pie pumpkins, these thin-skinned squash are smaller (4-8 lbs.) and have a sweet, dense flesh with a fine-grained, smooth texture. The cooked flesh is a bit drier, which makes a great pie filling.
Is there a difference between baking pumpkins and carving pumpkins? ›
A pie pumpkin will often feel heavier for its size than a carving pumpkin will. You can eat either one of them, but the pie pumpkin is likely to taste a lot better and have better texture. The carving pumpkin will probably be tougher, stringier, less sweet and just generally less flavorful.
Can you use any pumpkin for baking? ›
Choose Your Pumpkin
Large field pumpkins, which are bred for jack-o'-lanterns, are too flavorless and stringy for baking. A medium-sized (4-pound) sugar pumpkin should yield around 1½ cups of mashed pumpkin. This purée can be used in all your recipes calling for canned pumpkin.
Which pumpkins have the best flavor? ›
Sugar Pie Pumpkin
The sugar pie pumpkin, also known as sugar pumpkin, is a small pumpkin that is prized for its sweet and smooth flesh. This variety is specifically cultivated for its culinary uses, making it the go-to choice for homemade pumpkin pies, custards, and other delectable treats.
Are heirloom pumpkins good for baking? ›
Heirlooms are perfect for decorating but they really shine when used in the kitchen they are all edible with very different taste. Description and how to use the pumpkins are listed by each pumpkin. I use many of them in my baking.
What kind of pumpkin does Costco use in their pies? ›
According to David and Susan, Costco uses one kind of pumpkin exclusively: Dickinson pumpkins. Dickinson pumpkins are not the orange jack-o'-lantern canvas you're picturing; rather, they're beige with smooth sides.
Can any pumpkin be a pie pumpkin? ›
Start with the right variety of pumpkins, sugar pumpkins. Large pumpkins that we traditionally think of as jack-o-lanterns aren't ideal for pie as they are very stringy and have a lot of seeds. There really isn't very much “meat” to the larger pumpkins. Sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, are sweeter.
Can I use my Jack O'Lantern pumpkins for pie? ›
Jack O Lantern pumpkins, which is lighter than baking pumpkins and also can be baked and turned into a pumpkin pie or desert.
The claim is that these pumpkins have been grown specifically for pumpkin puree in cooking and baking, so the result is a sweeter and creamier product. Interesting. Of course, anything that's been canned will likely taste different than the fresh product.
What are baking pumpkins called? ›
Pie pumpkins, also called sugar pumpkins, usually weigh 1 to 6 pounds.
What is the best pumpkin to bake with? ›
When shopping for pumpkins, look for the ones usually generically labeled “sugar pumpkins” or “pie pumpkins.” Some specific names are Baby Pam, Autumn Gold, Ghost Rider, New England Pie Pumpkin, Lumina (which are white), Cinderella, and Fairy Tale.
Can you cook and eat any pumpkin? ›
You can eat any variety of pumpkin. Varieties vary wildly in taste. Explore, enjoy and revel in the fact that a pumpkin is not just for Halloween. Whilst you can eat any variety of pumpkin or squash, if it tastes very bitter, stop eating.
Are large pumpkins good for cooking? ›
You sure can! Halloween pumpkins are just really big squash. While they may not be as sweet as a muscat or sugar pumpkin, they're perfectly edible and I cook mine every year and use it to make homemade pumpkin purée, which I use in all kinds of recipes.
Is there a difference between canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree? ›
Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing, and you'll often see the terms used interchangeably in recipes and cookbooks. Unlike pumpkin pie mix, canned pumpkin does not have any spices, sugars, or other additives. In many cases, the only ingredient is pumpkin.
Which pumpkin puree is best for pie? ›
You may have heard that the purée in your canned pumpkin isn't the gourd you think it is. No matter, it still makes a delicious Thanksgiving pie. For our latest taste test, we tried nine varieties of canned pumpkin and determined the best for pie to be what America has trusted for years: Libby's.
What kind of pumpkin is used for canned pumpkin? ›
Dickinson pumpkins, also known as Dickinson squash, are the pumpkins used to make the majority of canned pumpkin we eat today. But Dickinson pumpkins are tan pumpkins with uniform, smooth skin that are much larger than the average field pumpkin. They're also sometimes called squash, not pumpkins.