Replacing Canned Pumpkin & Pumpkin Pancakes

I'm in the mood to make a favorite pumpkin pancake recipe, but the pandemic-related food shortages continue. I went to three grocery stores yesterday, and all of them are out of canned pumpkin. Instead, I bought 2 butternut squashes for $2 apiece, baked and pureed them. I have cooked squash in the Instant Pot before, and thought about that approach, but it yields a much wetter finished product and I wanted to end up with denser cooked squash that more closely resembled the canned texture.

Cut squash in half and seed them

Bake face down in oven until tender

I baked them at 350 until tender. I started checking at 30 min, they were done at about 50 min. I let them cool and then scooped the cooked squash into the food processor and pureed until smooth.

I used a food scale to weigh out 15 oz portions (as if canned) and got three portions. I'll freeze these.

Here is one of our favorite pumpkin pancake recipe:

Byerly's Autumn Brunch Pancakes

Good served with apple sauce

Note: if doubling, I've found use 5 eggs rather than 6

1 c unseasoned pumpkin (if doubling, 1 can works)

3 large eggs

1/2 c flour

1/3 c milk

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Butter for frying (about 2 Tbsp)

Combine all ingredients except butter for frying. Cook over medium heat about 2 min per side, or until tops bubble and bottoms are brown.

If you want to peel squash to cube and roast it, there's a suggestion to slice off the top and bottom, prick with a fork, then microwave the whole squash for 3 min to soften the peel. I've tried this and the jury is still out- it's just hard to peel squash.