Slow Cooker Pumpkin Butter recipe was a hit last year | NOLA.com

Check NOLA.com throughout October for more pumpkin recipes. (Photo by The Times-Picayune archive)

In general I ignore the artificially created promotional days. (You know: It's popcorn month!) ?But "Crocktober" I can tolerate. In fact, it's kind of cute. I love slow cookers.

And I especially like unusual slow cooker recipes, such as this one that was a hit on our pages at this time last year.

Pumpkin butter is easy to make and incredibly versatile: Use as a filling, a spread, a sauce, an ingredient in other dishes. Or combine it with cream cheese and serve as a dip.

But there is one caveat: You should not try to can pumpkin butter in a boiling water bath. It's so dense that the sterilization might not reach the middle of the jar, and recipes are generally not acid enough.

You can, of course, keep it refrigerated or frozen.

You can use canned pumpkin or the flesh of a pie pumpkin. Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are more watery and may require more cooking.

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Butter

8 cups pumpkin puree

4 cups sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Juice of 4 lemons

Combine all ingredients and cook the mixture either in a slow cooker on low for about four hours or in a 300-degree oven until it becomes thick and smooth.

Put the pumpkin butter in clean jars or freezer containers. (If freezing, leave at least 1/2 inch headspace at the top of the jar.) Refrigerate or freeze. Pumpkin butter should not be canned.

Source: http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2012/10/publish_104_slow_cooker_pumpki.html

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