Category: christmas-2013

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Krumkake in Gayville

By Ruth Steil

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.


For Ardys Olson of Gayville, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without krumkake (krum ka ka), or crooked cake. The thin, crisp Scandinavian cookie is a family tradition.

Ardys and her brothers, Duane and Jake, were raised on a farm near Irene during the Depression by their parents, Alfred and Alice Lee. The difficult times forced a frugality that touched all aspects of life, including the holidays.

When Ardys was very young, the Lees didn’t have a tree for the Christmas holiday.”Our first Christmas tree was one we were lucky enough to win in a drawing at school when I was in the seventh grade,” she says. Christmas gifts were pajamas sewn by her mother and toys carved with a pocketknife by her father. Ardys still treasures a set of doll furniture her father made.

On Christmas Eve, the family went to Bethlehem Lutheran Church near their home, where Ardys and her siblings sang and recited little verses in the Christmas program.”It wasn’t an elaborate pageant,” she says. Her mother recorded the following recitation in Ardys’ baby book:”I’m just a little girl and I haven’t much to say except to say I wish you Merry Christmas before I run away!” After the program, sacks of hard candy, nuts and an orange were handed out. That was the only orange the kids would eat all year.

There was something else the Lees had only once a year. Just before Christmas, Ardys’ mother baked krumkake using a special decorative two-sided iron similar to a waffle iron. She heated the iron on the top of a cook stove fired by cobs and wood. It must have been a real challenge but Ardys says,”My mother was an excellent baker and cook.” Since the krumkake were such a treat, they were hidden away until Christmas Day dinner.

As a child, Ardys didn’t have much interest in the kitchen. She taught herself to make krumkake as a young bride when she married Eugene”Swede” Olson. He’s really a Norwegian, but his childhood barber called him”a white-haired Swede” and the name stuck.

After his retirement, Swede became Ardys’ first assistant in her holiday krumkake baking. She still uses her mother’s 80-year-old iron baker, heating it over an old gas stove in the garage. Grates on newer ranges won’t heat the iron properly. Ardys also uses her mother’s recipe for the delicate cookie.”I’ve seen lots of other recipes,” she says,”but this one works, so I stick with it.”

After mixing the batter, Ardys pours a scant teaspoon on the preheated iron. The cookie is done on the first side in about 10 seconds. She turns the iron over to complete the baking on the other side. After another 10 seconds, Ardys flips the cookie off with a knife onto a flat tray. While still hot and flexible, Swede quickly rolls the cookie around a wooden peg. The Olsons make three batches of three dozen cookies and store them in gallon ice cream containers. And, just like Ardys’ mother, they must put the cookies in hiding for the holidays.

Ardys and Swede have three daughters and all of them covet their grandmother’s krumkake iron.”They’ll have to draw straws for it,” Ardys says. These days, electric irons are available with Teflon surfaces and timers. When the Olsons bought their daughter one of the new-fangled electric bakers, she told them,”The cookies just don’t taste like yours.”

Here is Alice Lee’s krumkake recipe. Without her special iron, the cookies may not taste just like hers, but it’s a good bet your family will love them just the same.

1 beaten egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cream
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat iron until drops of water dance on the surface. Put 1 scant teaspoon of batter in middle of iron. Close the lid, press down tightly and bake for 10 seconds. Turn iron to other side and bake 10 seconds. Open lid. Flip cookie off with a knife to a flat pan. Quickly roll on wooden peg. Let set until next cookie is ready to come off iron.

Optional: dust with powdered sugar or fill cones with whipped cream or other filling.

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Holiday Foods Heritage

By Jennifer Thom

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the Nov/Dec 1993 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.

On Christmas Eve in 1910, Emelia Nielson was a little disgruntled. Earlier that day she and her two-year-old daughter Esther had arrived in Hooker, South Dakota, just east of Viborg, by train, ending a long journey from Denmark. Emelia’s husband met them in the station. Chris had arrived months earlier to find a new home for his family.

“Mother said it was the worst Christmas she ever put in,” Esther recalled. Emelia, tired from the trip, declined an invitation to a Christmas party. Instead, Chris cooked bacon and eggs; dessert was lemon pie.

“Mother was wishing herself back in Denmark,” Esther said.”In America, they didn’t keep Christmas our way.”

Never again did Emelia have lemon pie at Christmas. She kept Christmas her way next year, and the years that followed, serving a robust Christmas dinner of roast goose, red cabbage, preserves and Danish apple cake.

“We always baked certain things: peppernuts, Danish puffs and Danish apple cake,” Esther said.”I was the oldest, so I always had to help. I was proud of that.”

South Dakotans still enjoy preparing dishes that are part of their heritage. Scandinavian specialties — rosettes, krumkake and lefse — are popular with Scandinavians and non-Scandinavians alike. As a nod to modern times, today’s cooks use a few shortcuts when they prepare dishes that celebrate their heritage at Christmas.

Baking most Scandinavian treats is time-intensive. The cook has to form each cookie or sweet individually. Sandbakkels, for instance, are made by pressing the dough into individual tart pans. After baking, the sandbakkels are gently tapped out of their pans one at a time.

When longtime Sioux Falls resident Rosaaen Olson visited her son in Norway, she decided to mother him with a batch of chocolate chip cookies. In the land of formed cookies, it wasn’t easy finding what she needed.”We couldn’t find a baking sheet anywhere,” Rosaaen recalled,”so we had to buy a pizza pan.”

Rosaaen’s been baking Julekake, Norwegian Christmas bread, for many years. It’s her middle son’s favorite; the youngest favors lefse. “If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it big,” Rosaaen said. She doubles the Julekake recipe so it yields eight loaves, some earmarked for gifts.”The eggs and milk make a rich dough,” Rosaaen said.”That’s what makes it so good. Scandinavian bread has more body.”

No doubt, Scandinavians like their food plentiful at Christmas.”One child goes without a present,” Thomas Asfeldt mused,”to pay for all the candy.” His mother was raised in Denmark and moved to America when she was 21. At Christmastime in his Sioux Falls kitchen, Thomas makes liver pate, a spread always found on a traditional Danish Christmas buffet. His wife, Karen, a Norwegian from Webster, chooses treats from their Scandinavian heritage to try each year. Two of her favorites are Coffee Balls and Orange Marmalade.”I like to make those two because they can be done in an evening,” Karen said.

When Emelia Hansen arrived in Hooker one hundred years ago, she brought with her few material possessions, but she had a rich storehouse of traditions and memories. Her descendants are now stewards of those traditions.

Invited by the Smithsonian Institute, Esther traveled to Washington D. C. to demonstrate the Danish recipe aebleskiver. In a tent by the reflecting pool, Esther prepared aebleskiver, using knitting needles to turn over the muffin-like treats as they browned in a cast iron skillet.

Closer to home, a minister in Viborg asked Esther to help him recreate a Danish Christmas for a party at the church. Esther recited the Danish song,”Nu Er Det Jul Igen” (Now it is Christmas Again) while the minister wrote down the phonetic spelling. The minister tutored a choir of young Viborg residents.

“I had tears in my eyes. I was so proud of them, said Esther.”You’d swear they were a bunch of little Danes.”

Karen Asfeldt’s Marmalit (Marmalade)

3 to 5 oranges, washed clean
2 cups dried apricots
2 to 3 lemons, washed clean
1 cup sugar, or to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla

Do not peel the oranges and lemons. Cover and soak apricots in water for 3 to 4 hours. Cut fruit into wedges. Use food processor to mince the fruit. Add 1 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Stir and let sit for 20 minutes. Adjust sugar to taste. Store covered in refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks.


Emelia Nielsen’s Danish Cookies

1 cup lard
3 eggs
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons baking ammonia (available at pharmacies or online) in a little water
Dash of cardamom
2 cups sugar
4 cups flour

Mix all ingredients into a stiff dough. Knead well, let stand and rest a while. Roll out thin, and cut with cookie wheel into shapes. Brush top with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 degrees until light brown.

Rosaaen Olson’s Julekake (Christmas Bread)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup water
3 cups milk
2 packages dry yeast
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
10 cups flour
2 eggs
2 cups candied or dried fruit

Melt butter in 1/2 cup water and 3 cups milk. Put yeast, sugar, salt, cardamom and 5 cups of flour in a large bowl. Beat 2 eggs into milk mixture and add to all ingredients. Beat all 3 to 4 minutes. Gradually add about 5 cups flour. Mix in candied or dried fruit.

Let dough rise one hour or until doubled. Shape into four loves. Put into greased pan. Let rise again for one hour. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Frost with powdered sugar frosting and top with slivered almonds.

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Holiday Kitchen Traditions

By Ruth Steil

Marion Kryger of Vermillion makes over 150 pounds of peanut brittle and gives it away every Christmas. His passion began 40 years ago when he came in from morning farm chores. His wife was bustling about making cookies and candy in preparation for Christmas.”You’re not doing anything,” she said.”You can make the peanut brittle this year.”

She helped him muddle through his first batch. After that, he continued to make the crunchy confection and began taking plates to local farm stores like Meckling Fertilizer, Mark’s Machinery and Vermilion Fertilizer.”They give caps away,” he said.”I wanted to give them something.”

Since then, it’s become a holiday hobby.”Some people hunt and fish, I make peanut brittle,” Marion says.”It makes me happy that people get so much enjoyment from it. I’ve never sold a plate of peanut brittle.”

A good peanut brittle is”all in the technique” according to Marion.”First of all, a heavy pan makes all the difference when you’re doing candy,” he says. He also finds the best possible peanuts. He buys from Palmer Candy Company in Sioux City, makers of the Bing bar.

Marion also recommends warming the cookie sheets a little before pouring the hot brittle; then the candy cools and hardens more slowly, giving him time to stretch it on the pan. Thinness is important; his is thick-paper thin, with peanuts bulging out.”Most people make it too thick and then it gets too hard,” he says.”Thinning keeps it light and crunchy. You can eat my brittle with false teeth.”

One hundred fifty pounds of peanut brittle is quite an undertaking. One batch produces two pounds and takes Marion about an hour to make.”The most I’ve ever done in a day is seven or eight batches,” he said.”I usually have the dining room table full then.”

Although Marion has never sold his brittle, he donates it to fundraisers for the museum, senior center, historical society and Catholic church in Vermillion. He also makes plates of brittle for donors to his country church, Bergen Lutheran near Meckling.

He gave us some too, and we agree with Marion when he says,”There’s a lot of good peanut brittle out there, but I’ve never tasted better.” Here’s his recipe:

2 cups sugar
1 cup white syrup
1/2 cup hot water
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons soda
1 pounds raw peanuts

Combine water, syrup, sugar and salt in a heavy pan and bring to full boil. Add peanuts carefully to prevent splatter. Continue cooking on medium heat using a good candy thermometer, stirring occasionally until the mixture reaches 275 degrees. Add butter and vanilla. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Cook to 300 degrees, remove from heat and add soda, stirring quickly and vigorously to distribute evenly and complete foaming action. Pour mixture evenly onto 3 buttered Teflon cookie sheets one at a time using stirring spoon to spread evenly. Use a fork to gently pull the outside edges flat. As brittle begins to cool, lift and gently pull until thin.

Marion recommends wearing gloves when pouring the hot brittle onto the pans to help avoid accidents.”Be very careful with the 300 degree mixture,” he says.”If you get the mixture on your skin, it just continues to burn.”

Preheim Pepper Cookies

Arlene Preheim’s family has gathered for over last 30 years to make Christmas cookies from a cherished family recipe.”I remember my granddaughter being in a playpen when we started,” said Arlene.”Now she has her PhD.”

The spice cookie recipe was given to Arlene by her husband’s mother. She doesn’t know where it originated, but the recipe is more than 100 years old. Both her mother-in-law’s mother and grandmother made the cookies.

On a Saturday in early December, family members bring their favorite cookie cutters to Arlene’s home in Freeman to spend the day baking the much-loved cookies. Dough must be rolled out and cut into shapes. Then, after baking, each cookie is frosted and decorated with colored sugar. An old dining room table in the basement becomes a drying station for the dozens of cookies the recipe produces. For many years, Arlene has kept a cookie count on the back of the recipe card. 2007’s total was 522.

At the end of a long baking day, the tired group enjoys dinner together.”Everyone usually brings something for a potluck after we’ve finished,” said Arlene.”But last year we got really lazy and ordered pizza.”

The frosting must dry overnight, so the cookies are divided the next day. The division is made carefully so that each container holds the same number of Santas, stars, candy canes, bells, etc.

“Even after eating all the other Christmas sweets,” says Arlene,”these cookies will still tempt you.”

2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 pound butter
1 quart light molasses
1 tablespoon each cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, coriander seed (or ground coriander)
Small pinch of black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons soda
12 cups flour

Mix and boil brown sugar, butter, spices and molasses for 5 minutes. Cool slightly and stir in soda. (Be sure to use a large enough cooking pot because when the soda is added it will foam.) When cool, stir in flour to make a stiff dough.

Dough can be kept at room temperature for months to bake whenever you wish. In fact, it should age about 2 weeks before baking. (“We have evolved,” says Arlene.”We make the dough a day or two ahead and it seems to work better.”

Roll dough very thin, cut out and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch closely, as cookies burn easily.

When cool, frost the cookies. Do not use a powdered sugar frosting as the cookies will absorb the moisture and become soft. Try this instead.

Frosting

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 egg white, stiffly beaten

Boil sugar and water until mixture spins a thread (230 degrees), then beat into egg white. Frosts 80-100 cookies.

Tillie’s Plum Dumplings

Edicts from Rome caused one meal to become a holiday favorite in Tillie Varilek’s family.”Growing up we didn’t eat meat on Fridays since we were Catholic,” she said.”Lots of times dumplings were our supper.”

Tillie took her mother’s dumpling recipe with her when she wed, and they were a mandatory dish at family get-togethers and reunions until she passed away in 2012. At one gathering, everyone asked if she’d brought them.”I said, ‘I brought kolaches instead’ and they said”Well, I guess you can stay then,'” Tillie told us in 2008.

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
Lard or shortening the size of an egg
Milk to moisten, approximately 3/4 cup
6-7 plums (peaches or Italian prunes may also be used)

Work ingredients together with fingers until right consistency. Wrap dough around plums and seal. Place in boiling water. Boil 30 minutes. Before serving, cut in half and remove pit. Sprinkle with sugar. Drizzle with melted butter. Serve warm.

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Sweet Time

By Ruth Steil


Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in our Nov/Dec 2009 issue. In 2011, donations of fudge for state prisoners will be accepted Dec. 12-16 at four locations:

St. Michael Parish –1600 Marion Rd., Sioux Falls
East Side Lutheran Church –1300 East 10th St., Sioux Falls
Benedictine Multicultural Center –2500 5th St SE, Watertown
St. Benedict Parish — 1500 St. Benedict Drive, Yankton

These sites provide holiday treats for inmates in Sioux Falls, Springfield and Yankton. Rapid City and Pierre have their own gift sack programs, so every prisoner in South Dakota will receive something for Christmas. To find out about the Rapid City inmate sack program, call Len Portillo at 605-641-2211. Email Rev. Michelle Bradley at churchofhope@midco.net to learn about Pierre’s program.


Just after the Christmas Eve dinner, chaplains and volunteers will hand out small paper sacks to 3,000 state prisoners in Sioux Falls, Springfield and Yankton. Inside are two Christmas cards nestled among five pieces of hard candy, one cup of peanuts in the shell, a candy cane and two squares of homemade fudge.

Families are not allowed to send food or gifts into the prison. They can give money, but many inmates receive nothing. The cards and candy are the only things that will mark their holiday.

Leonard Blue Thunder has been incarcerated since 1989.”To some in the free world maybe it’s not much, but for me and my friends it’s a very big treat that we wait for the whole year,” he said.”It’s like at home during Christmas, Grandma used to make fudge for us.”

The Christmas cards are handmade by elementary and Sunday school students.”One inmate who had been in prison for seven or eight years saved every one of the cards and took them with him when he left,” said Mary Montoya, penitentiary volunteer for Native Americans. Another inmate was deeply touched when he discovered that the name on one of the cards was the same as his child.

Prison is isolating, particularly during the holidays.”It’s very lonesome and you long to be home with loved ones,” said Blue Thunder.”Sometimes the best part of the holidays is a card from someone you forgot about. It sure cheers your soul up by remembering the good times you had. Then we appreciate the little things in life that we used to do, like going for a simple walk and just being around family at supper time.”

Inmates especially appreciate the fudge and cards because they rarely receive anything homemade.”Anything that helps connect them with the outside — their families or when they were kids — softens them and takes the hardness of prison away,” said the Rev. Regan Beauchamp.”It makes them feel connected, less isolated.”

Most of the prisoners’ fudge comes from home kitchens, but the Catholic sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton cooked some in 2008. The monastery also became a drop-off point (above) for Christmas bags that were assembled for prisoners in Yankton and Springfield.

Donated fudge has been a part of the Christmas sack program at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls for 25 years. Yankton and Springfield state prisons were added recently.

The Rev. Joe Mardian started the fudge program. He raised funds and arranged to stuff the sacks. When he left, the program was overseen by chaplains of various faiths. For a while it was run by St. Dysmas, a Lutheran prison congregation. Dysmas was the traditional name given to the good thief next to Christ on the cross; it’s a common name for a prison ministry. Recently the Christmas sack program has been organized and sponsored by an ecumenical group of prison, religious and cultural volunteers.

Prisoners in solitary confinement receive bags along with everyone else.”We deliver sacks to the door and wish them Merry Christmas,” said Beauchamp. An inmate was on a hunger strike during the holidays a few years ago, but when a chaplain arrived with fudge the strike promptly came to an end.

The recipe has been tweaked a few times over the years.”We were getting fudge that was so hard it could be used as a weapon,” said the Rev. Gary Ternes, a prison chaplain. The present fudge formula is easy to make, doesn’t scorch and most importantly, remains soft.

Appeals for fudge and donations for the other Christmas sack treats are made to parishes of all denominations.”One thing that is neat about the program is that it’s ecumenical — there are people from every faith handing out sacks,” says Montoya.

Nobody calculates how much fudge it takes for 3,000 sacks. “Somehow we end up having enough,” says Beauchamp.”The peanuts and candy — of course we have enough — but the fudge is by faith.”


If you would like to make a donation, here are a couple of prison fudge guidelines: The recipe must be followed exactly and variations will not be allowed inside the prison. Each piece of fudge must be wrapped in plastic wrap; plastic bags are not allowed. For further information or to make donations please contact Rev. Gary Ternes at (605) 367-5113 or e-mail gary.ternes@state.sd.us.

‘Christmas Sack’ Fudge Recipe

1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
1/2 lb Velveeta cheese
2 lbs powdered sugar
Ω cup unsweetened dry cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla
Ω cup chopped walnuts
Ω cup chocolate chips

In a large saucepan, melt cheese, chocolate chips, and butter together stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and nuts. In a large bowl, sift together the sugar and cocoa. Pour the cheese mixture onto the sugar and cocoa mixture and stir until completely mixed. The candy will be stiff.

Using your hands (covered with gloves or plastic wrap) remove the candy from the bowl and press it evenly in a 9 x 13 inch pan lightly sprayed on the bottom with nonstick spray. When cool, cut into 24 pieces.

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Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Cinnamon rolls are a good treat any time, but these pumpkin cinnamon rolls seem tailor-made for early Thanksgiving morning. The sweet cream cheese frosting pairs well with the spicy holiday flavors of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove, and the addition of whole wheat flour and pumpkin puree allows you to pretend they’re nutritious. Mary Elsen, one of our circulation assistants, brought a pan in recently to share. She says that they don’t raise as high as traditional cinnamon rolls because of the whole wheat flour, but you can make up for their lack of height with extra cream cheese frosting and no one seems to mind.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

By Mary Elsen

Ingredients:

Roll Dough:
1/3 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar

1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup pumpkin puree, either fresh or canned
1 tablespoon butter
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Filling:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Sprinkle yeast and 1 tsp. sugar onto water in a large bowl. After 5 minutes (when mixture is foamy) stir to combine. Heat milk in microwave until bubbly but not boiling over, then add butter and stir until melted. Add the milk-butter mixture, egg, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger to the yeast mixture. Mix well. Add the cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of the all-purpose flour. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, until you have soft dough.

Grease a large bowl with a generous teaspoon of butter. Add the dough and turn it until the entire ball is coated with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in another bowl, set aside. Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat or roll it into an 18″ x 12″ inch rectangle. Spread with the butter/sugar/spice mixture.

Starting from one of the long sides, roll the dough into a log and cut into 12 generous slices. Place in a greased 9″ x 13″ inch baking pan (I prefer to use a metal pan — if you use a glass baking dish, you may need to reduce the oven temperature). Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375∞F oven. Bake about 20-30 minutes, until the rolls are brown around the edges and beginning to turn golden brown across the center.

While the rolls are baking, prepare the cream cheese frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and lemon juice until well combined. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. (I used 3 cups powdered sugar.)

Frost warm rolls with the cream cheese frosting and serve immediately.


Pumpkin Puree From Scratch

by Mary Elsen

When I have the smaller, sweeter pie pumpkins growing in my garden, I like to make pumpkin puree from scratch.

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Next, line a large (rimmed) baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray. (If a rimmed baking sheet is unavailable, I would suggest folding up the edges of the aluminum foil, and crimping the corners, because the pumpkin can release a noticeable amount of liquid while baking, and this is not something you want dripping all over your oven!)

Select a solid-looking pie pumpkin. Knock off the stem, and cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the pulp and seeds (save them for roasted pumpkin seeds — they are delicious!) Place each half, cut side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until pumpkin is soft and can be easily pricked with a fork, and begins to collapse (this can take 1 to 2 hours — it just depends on the pumpkin.) Remove the pan from the oven and let everything cool until it can be handled comfortably.

Scrape out the soft pulp and discard the skin. At this point you can pulse the pulp in a food processor if an even puree is desired, or use it as is, if a more rustic texture is preferred. Either way, I always cook the pulp on the stovetop over medium-high for an additional 15 minutes or so, to evaporate away extra liquid and get closer to the consistency of canned pumpkin used in most recipes. During this step, try to use a non-stick pan and stir constantly, to avoid burning! When the pumpkin appears thickened, you are ready to proceed with your recipe.