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How To Dehydrate Pumpkin and Make Pumpkin Powder

Dehydrating pumpkin and blending it to a powder is such a convenient way to enjoy delicious fall flavors all year round. It adds extra nutrition to your foods and saves on precious pantry space. You can rehydrate the powder into puree or use the powder directly in your cooking and baking.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 hours
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • Pumpkins or Winter Squash

Equipment

  • baking sheet for roasting pumpkin
  • immersion blender for making puree (or use a regular blender)
  • Dehydrator
  • fruit Leather Trays (or use parchment paper lined on regular dehydrator trays)
  • high powered blender (if blending into powder)
  • glass mason jar with lid for storage

Method
 

Prepare Pumpkin For Roasting
  1. Wash pumpkin to make sure all dirt is removed from skin.
  2. Remove top and cut down the center of pumpkin from top to bottom.
  3. Scrap out the guts and seeds using a spoon. Save the seeds for roasting pumpkin seeds!
  4. Place both halves face down onto a baking sheet and cover with about a 1/2 inch of water.
  5. Roast in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour or until skin is completely soft.
Prepare Pumpkin Puree
  1. Remove skins from pumpkin.
  2. Blend the pumpkin into a puree with an immersion blender or blend in a regular blender until smooth.
Dehydrate Pumpkin
  1. Spread pumpkin puree about a 1/4-1/2 inch thick onto the fruit leather trays fitted for your dehydrator. Alternatively you can use parchment paper onto top of your regular dehydrating trays.
  2. Dehydrate at 125 degrees for 10-12 hours or until puree is completely dry and brittle.
  3. Remove from trays breaking off into smaller pieces and store in a glass mason jar.
  4. Store on your pantry shelf as is or blend into pumpkin powder!
Blend into Pumpkin Powder
  1. Place dehydrated pumpkin pieces into a high powered blender
  2. Blend to a fine powder
  3. Store in a glass mason jar on your pantry shelf.

Notes

    • You can dehydrate puree at 135 degrees for 6-8 hours for quicker drying. Note that generally the lower the temperature you use the more nutrients is retained in the final product.
    • Make sure you dry pumpkin thoroughly so that it cracks easily and does not bend like a fruit leather. You can learn to make yummy pumpkin fruit leathers HERE.
    • You can use the same dehydrating methods to use up the rest of a store bought can of pumpkin puree!
    • If your pumpkin puree is too watery you can strain it through a cheese cloth or simmer for 5-10 minutes to thicken.
    • Alternatively you can store dehydrated pumpkin in cube form to add to recipes. Cut raw pumpkin into small 1/2 inch cubes. Blanch cubes for 4 minutes and dehydrate at 125 degrees for 12-15 hours.