Pumpkin Butter

Have you heard of this stuff?  If you have, and you haven't told me. . .  I don't know if we can be friends anymore.  Basically pumpkin butter is like pumpkin pie jam, and contrary to the name it doesn't actually have butter in it.  One minute I was playing on Pinterest, having never heard of pumpkin butter and an hour later I was whipping up a batch on my stove top.  So easy and I had all the ingredients (except apple juice, which my MIL had.  The benefits of living with parents).

So far I've used it to make pumpkin french toast and as an apple dip.  (I've eaten two apples dipped in pumpkin butter just while writing this post) On cinnamon swirl bread toast?  I would probably die of happiness.  Topped on pancakes or muffins?  The possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:  (I followed this recipe exactly except I didn't have any mace, so left that out)
1 (28-oz.) can pumpkin puree
3/4 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmege
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan.
2. The recipe said to bring it to a boil, but all it really did for me was blow up bubbles and splatter my kitchen with yummy smelling orange goop.  So I kept the lid on the pot, cracked with a wooden spoon to let the steam out.  I stirred it every minute or so for about 45 minutes.  It was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but maybe I had it turned down too low or maybe keeping the lid on made it take longer.  Still the yummiest thing I've ever eaten.

I put some in small jars to give away with this tag and the recipe for pumpkin french toast.  I used the pumpkin clip art from this site. When I printed it out I just folded it accordion style into thirds with the pumpkin on the top and put a small hole in the upper left corner to tie it on.

This is pretty much the best thing I've discovered this year.