This pumpkin butter is made with real butter and spiced pumpkin puree. It's fluffy, smooth, buttery, tastes slightly sweetened, and full of warm spices, which is perfect for the fall and the holidays! It's incredibly easy to make and requires only 5 ingredients. Try it with out pumpkin dinner rolls for the best fall dinner roll and butter combo or use it with your daily meals to make bread and baked goods extra tasty and irresistible!
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What is pumpkin butter
Pumpkin butter is often known as a fruit spread, like apple butter. However, our pumpkin butter is made with actually butter, making this pumpkin butter a compound butter.
It's made with cooked down, seasoned and sweetened pumpkin puree that's whipped with butter until light and fluffy. This pumpkin butter is super versatile, tastes AMAZING, and also stores really well.
What to use pumpkin butter for
This pumpkin butter is a very versatile condiment that's great for everyday meals and gatherings, especially during the fall and winter season. Here are a few ways that we like to enjoy it:
- Dinner rolls and bread - Pumpkin dinner rolls, milk bread loaf, toasts
- Breakfast - Japanese soufflé pancakes or regular pancakes, waffles, biscuits
- Baked goods - Biscuits, scones, muffins
Ingredient notes
Please scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredient quantities!
- Pumpkin puree - You can use either homemade or can pumpkin puree. If you're making your own homemade pumpkin puree, make sure to blend it as fine as possible. For store-bought can pumpkin puree, make sure to use 100% pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie mix!
- Brown sugar - Either light or dark brown sugar is fine. Brown sugar offers a bit more deep, caramel flavor, but if you only have regular white granulated sugar, it's fine too.
- Pumpkin spice - Feel free to use store bought pumpkin spice or make your pumpkin spice mix if you already have these spices in your pantry:
- 3TBSP ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3 teaspoon ground cloves or ground allspice (or half and half of each)
- 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Salt - Just a little to help round out the flavor.
- Unsalted butter - We always recommend using unsalted butter so that you have total control of how your dishes and recipes taste. If you only have salted butter, you can use it, however, the butter may be a bit saltier than it should be. Make sure to omit the salt if using salted butter!
How to make pumpkin butter
Please scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe and instructions!
1. Combine pumpkin mixture. Into a saucepan or nonstick pan, add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt, and pumpkin spice. Mix until well combined.
2. Cook the pumpkin mixture. Cook the pumpkin mixture over medium heat until it's thick, looks smooth, and easily slips off the rubber spatula. Make sure to stir constantly with a rubber spatula.
3. Cool the pumpkin mixture. Transfer the cooked spiced pumpkin mixture onto heatproof plate and spread it out. Allow the mixture to cool completely before using. You can also let it cool in the fridge to reduce wait time.
4. Whip with butter. Once the spiced pumpkin mixture is completely cool, transfer it to the stand mixer along with the softened butter. Using the paddle attachment, whip the mixture on medium until combined. Scrape down the paddle and the bowl and whip on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides as needed.
📝 Note: This process can also be done using a hand mixer. However, it'll take a bit longer and the butter needs to be scraped down often and reincorporated.
5. Serve. You can serve the spiced pumpkin butter in butter containers or small ramekins. Use it within a few hours and refrigerate or freeze the rest. See "Storage" below for more details.
Recipe tip
- Stir the spiced pumpkin puree mixture constantly while cooking to prevent burning at the bottom of the pan.
- Cooking out the moisture until the puree is thick (not dry) is important for both flavor and the butter texture. Having excess moisture content can cause the butter to split and look broken.
- Use softened butter. This is essential for whipping up the fluffiest butter and also ensures that everything is well combined. If the butter is too cold, it'll be hard to whip up and could even damage the equipment.
- Add the spiced pumpkin mixture when it is completely cooled! If you use the pumpkin mixture while it's warm or hot, it'll melt the butter instead of making it fluffy.
Storage
Our pumpkin butter recipe makes a decent amount of pumpkin butter, which is perfect to store for later! Extra pumpkin butter can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months.
For storage, we recommend pre-portioning the butter so that you can soften and defrost as much as you need, rather than the entire thing. We like to divide our pumpkin butters into 2 to 3 tablespoon portions and wrapping them in cling wrap. They can be twisted into tight little logs that take very little space and store really well. You can do the same with small freezer-safe, airtight containers.
FAQ
This pumpkin butter is smooth, buttery, slightly sweetened, and full of warm spices.
Yes! We recommend only keeping the pumpkin butter out at room temperature for a maximum of 3 to 4 hours. There's sugar and moisture in the butter which is a great environment for bacteria growth. If you like to keep your pumpkin butter soft and convenient for spreading, we recommend storing it in smaller portions and allow the butter to warm up at room temperature before use. See our "Storage" section for more details.
Most pumpkin butter recipes are actually pumpkin fruit spread, which does not contain butter. This pumpkin butter recipe actually uses butter because it's a compound butter made with spiced pumpkin puree.
📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Butter
Ingredients
- 9 ounces pumpkin puree (9oz is about 1 cup + 3 TBSPs)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar packed (light or dark)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice *see notes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
Instructions
- In a nonstick pan or a saucepan, add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, pumpkin spices, and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Heat the pan over medium heat and cook the pumpkin mixture until it becomes thicker, about 4 to 5 minutes. Stir constantly with a rubber spatula. By the time the pumpkin mixture is done, it should look smooth, easily slips off the spatula, and not leave any pumpkin residue, and peel off the side of the pan.
- Transfer the thickened pumpkin mixture to a plate and spread it out to cool. You can also let it cool in the fridge for about 15 minutes, uncovered.
- Once the pumpkin mixture has completely cooled, transfer it to the stand mixer bowl along with the softened butter. Using the paddle attachment, whip on medium until the butter and pumpkin mixture is well combined. Scrape down the bowl and paddle and whip on medium high speed until the pumpkin butter is light and fluffy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and paddle as needed.
- Transfer the pumpkin butter into a butter container or a serving ramekin and use immediately. You can also give the butter a light sprinkle of flakey salt for an extra touch of saltiness right before serving.
- Leftover butter can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months (see "Storage" in the post above for more details).
Notes
- Pumpkin puree - Make sure to use 100% pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie mix!
- Pumpkin spice - You can use store bought pumpkin spice mix, but if you already have these spices listed below, you can easily make your own homemade pumpkin spice! Also feel free to adjust the ratio to your preference.
- 3TBSP ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3 teaspoon ground cloves or all spice (or half and half of each)
- 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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