Chocolate Pumpkin Butter

So I went for this long walk on Saturday-- exercise-- and on my way back home, stopped in at Urban Harvest, a gourmet food mart. While I was there, I tried this fantastic, totally delish pumpkin butter. MMMM! So I pick up the jar, read the nutrition info on the back-- discover that it's only about 25 calories a tablespoon... and that the ingredients are largely pumpkin, spices and sugar. That's it! but at 6.99 a jar, I decided I'd give it a try at home, and then if no success, I'd go back and buy a jar instead.

So anyway, yesterday I decided to see if I could make my own version of pumpkin butter. Here's what I ended up making: (see recipe below)

Chocolate Pumpkin Butter Recipe
1 can of Libby's pureed pumpkin (15.9 oz)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
2 dashes ground ginger
1/3 C. Honey
1 snack pack of Mott's unsweetened applesauce
1 tbsp semisweet chocolate chips

The chocolate was added last, thought it might be an interesting twist-- I think you always need a little fat to help things taste good. And chocolate-infused pumpkin butter just sounded like a good idea at the time.

Anyways, I heated up everything except the applesauce and the chocolate, in a saucepan over low heat. This reduced the pumpkin matter and helped to bring out the flavors in the spices. Then I added the chocolate- let it melt and mixed it into the pumpkin. You never want to put chocolate in too soon-- if it scorches it ruins the whole thing-- best to let it just melt and then fold it in.

After the pumpkin was reduced to a thick brown paste, I shut off the heat. Then, I stirred in the applesauce to thin it out a bit, make it spreadable. And, voila! A new recipe for chocolate pumpkin butter!

Just thought I'd share this with you-- and it took me about 20 minutes to make.

My roomie, I think, may be addicted to this. She suggested I can it, put it in jars, and make it for Christmas gifts. Hmm... maybe...

:)