Author Notes
Velvety sweet and spicy spreads starring your favorite winter squashes. —Sarah (The Yellow House)
Test Kitchen Notes
This recipe is great to have in your back pocket in the fall and winter, when squash is abundant. Using a hand blender, like the Braun MultiQuick 9, makes whipping up a batch super quick (and super easy to clean up!). —The Editors
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
- Winter squash butter
-
2 cups
roasted squash
-
1/2 cup
brown or demerara sugar
-
2 teaspoons
spice blend of choice (see recipes for spice blends below)
-
1/2 teaspoon
lemon juice
-
4 tablespoons
apple cider (can substitute water)
- Cardamom-clove-star anise spice blend
-
1 teaspoon
whole cloves
-
1 teaspoon
cardamom seeds
-
1
small piece of a star anise pod
-
1 tablespoon
ground cinnamon
Directions
- Winter squash butter
-
(If you haven't yet roasted your squash, preheat the oven to 450° F, cut your winter squash of choice in half, remove the seeds and stringy bits, drizzle with a bit of neutral tasting oil, and roast until the flesh of the squash is very tender, 40 minutes to 1 hour.)
-
Scooping the roasted squash flesh from the skin, measure out two full cups of winter squash, packing it into the measuring cup. Then transfer to a container and puree, using a hand blender.
-
Add in sugar, spice blend, lemon juice, and apple cider and blend until smooth.
-
Using a spatula, scrape the mixture into a medium saucepan. Bring the squash mixture to a simmer, and continue to simmer, scraping the bottom to prevent sticking and burning, for 10 to 15 minutes, until it thickens and becomes velvety.
-
Allow the squash butter to cool, and then funnel into small jars. The butter will keep, refrigerated, for up to two weeks. (Please note that you can not safely can the squash butter.)
- Cardamom-clove-star anise spice blend
-
Pulverize the cloves, cardamom seeds, and star anise pod. Mix with ground cinnamon.
I'm a public health professional in the nation's capital, and an enthusiastic home cook and writer in my rural Virginia kitchen. I love simple, market- and garden-driven food and entertaining that's accessible and low-fuss.
I like to think I write about the life lived between the lines of the recipe.
See what other Food52ers are saying.