Pumpkin or Butternut?

I've heard rumors for years that Libby's pumpkin is actually butternut squash--so I decided to give both types of squash a little trial and see. On the can it says pumpkin is the only ingredient--but there are many varieties of pumpkin, and I think I remember seeing a "Libby's pumpkin" seed offered in seed catalogs. So those might be different. But based on what I had at hand I baked both a pumpkin and a butternut. This is a pumpkin we grew in our garden this year--they are a little small for jack-o-lanterns, and the inside wasn't particularly thick. After baking it I put it through the food mill to get rid of the strings and ended up with about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pulp. It was pretty watery and I had to add extra flour to the cookies I made from it. It was also rather a light color.

The butternut had such a small seed cavity and such nice orange flesh! I baked it too and put it through the food mill--tho, since it didn't have strings that was hardly necessary. It was almost as thick as the canned pumpkin and the cookies turned out very nice. I got about 3 cups of pulp. I'm a fan of butternut squash!!!

I must say a word about pumpkin pies--I've made them with home grown pumpkin and with canned--the canned is definitely superior! Just follow the recipe on the can (I usually cut the ginger in half) and you will get a superb pumpkin pie.

But now back to the cookies. these are the ones made with squash, the pumpkin ones weren't too photogenic. The recipe is below...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
1 cup oats
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin (or butternut squash)
1 cup chocolate chips

Sift flour, soda, cinnamon and salt, add oats. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars until smooth, add egg, beat well. Add pumpkin and vanilla and then dry ingredients, mix well. Stir in chocolate chips (or you could use raisins if no Kelly boys are involved in the eating). Drop on greased cookie sheet. I tablespoonful at a time. Bake about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes about 4 dozen. Or you could make really big ones with 1/4 cup of batter per cookie and cook 20-25 minutes--that would probably make 2-3 dozen.

Very tasty--and they must be healthy with that oatmeal and pumpkin in them!