Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree

This post is sponsored by my friends at Vitamix. As always all opinions are my own! 

We try to eat seasonally as much as possible around here! We rely on farmer’s markets, produce stands, and our own garden for fresh, locally-grown produce.

Since seasonal eating is important to me when it comes to feeding my older kids, I adopt the same principles when feeding my babies. This Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree takes the best of fall produce and combines it into a delicious puree that your baby will love to eat!

Even though my sweet Mara just recently started her journey with solid foods, I’ve been feeding my babies homemade purees for over 6 years now. I have made just about every baby food combination under the sun, and this is one of my {and my babies’} favorites.

I don’t know what it is about the orange veggies, but all four of my kids have loved them. First I introduce sweet potatoes, then move on to carrots and pumpkin. The problem with pumpkin is that most of my kids haven’t loved it on its own.

That’s understandable right?! Have you ever cracked open a can of pumpkin puree and dug right in? {Me neither}. That’s why I love adding apples to bring a little sweetness to the pumpkin party in this Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree!

An important note about combination purees.

 Always start your babies on single-food purees. This is important to ensure that your sweet baby is not allergic to the foods you feed her. If you feed her a combination of foods, like this Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree and she has a reaction, you will not be able to decipher which food caused it.

So, before you feed this Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree to your little one, be sure you have introduced her to both apples and pumpkin, separately!

I told you all the reasons why I make my own baby food in this post…so I won’t go there again. However something I will note is how much I love whipping up a large batch of baby food, like this Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree, and freezing it to use whenever I need to.

I have two different silicone trays that I use to freeze purees. When my babies are younger I use this individual silicone brownie pan, because each well holds 1 TBS of puree. The downside to this pan is that it doens’t have a lid, so you have to be careful when you put it in the freezer.

I recently purchased three of these silicone ice cube trays and LOVE them {pictured below}. Two specific features that absolutely rock about these are: 1) they have a hard outer rim which makes it easy to lift & move even when it’s full. and 2) they come with lids! Each well also has a larger capacity of 2 TBS, so they’re perfect once your baby develops a larger appetite!

Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree: Substitutions

There are only two ingredients in this recipe, {well 3 including water} but here are a few notes about each!

Apples. I recommend a sweet, flavorful apple variety like Galas, Honeycrisps or Pink Ladies. But any variety will do. If you already have homemade, unsweetened applesauce on hand feel free to use 1 1/2 cups of applesauce instead of the 3 cups of cooked apples.

Pumpkin. I have included instructions to use freshly roasted pumpkin. I love doing this, but in a pinch you absolutely can use canned pumpkin puree. Please stick with an organic variety that has one ingredient – pumpkin!

Use a Vitamix!

A question you might be asking yourself is, “If I use pumpkin puree and applesauce (instead of whole apples and freshly roasted pumpkin), do I still need to blend them together?”

The answer is YES! You want your Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree to be as smooth as possible. Plus blending ensures that both the flavor and texture are consistent throughout the mixture! There’s no better way to make homemade baby food than in the Vitamix!

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Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree* 1 small sugar/pie pumpkin or 1 (15 oz can organic pumpkin puree)
• 3 medium apples peeled cored & chopped (about 3 cups)
• 1 cup water

Instructions

Homemade Pumpkin Puree:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Remove the stem from the pumpkin, cut it in half and remove the seeds.
3. Place both halves of the pumpkin flesh side down in a 9x13” baking dish.
4. Pour water in the bottom of the dish until it fills the dish about ¼” high.
5. Cover pan/pumpkins with foil and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the pumpkins are soft to the touch (the skin depresses when pushed).
6. Set pumpkin halves flesh-side up to cool.
7. Once cool, remove pumpkin flesh from the skin and measure out 1 ½ cups.

Cook apples:

1. Place peeled & chopped apples and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the apples are soft (about 10-12 minutes).
3. Remove from heat and let the water and apples cool (do not discard water, reserve it to use in the baby food).

Make the puree:

1. Add ½ cup of the water used to cook apples, cooked apples and pumpkin to the container of your Vitamix blender.
2. Turn the machine on and slowly increase the speed to high, blend until smooth
3. If necessary, add up to an ½ cup more water and continue blending until mixture reaches desired consistency (younger babies (4-7 months) need thinner purees, while older babies (8+ months) can handle a little bit of texture)!

Freeze/store:

1. Freeze in 1-2 TBS portions using an ice cube tray or silicone mold.
2. Once frozen, remove cubes from tray/mold and transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer.

To Reheat:

1. Place desired number of cubes in a microwave safe container and warm for 30 seconds per cube. Check to ensure they are not too warm before feeding to your baby!

Seriously this Homemade Apple & Pumpkin Baby Food Puree is so delicious I even take a few tastes as I whip up a batch! All of my little ones have gone crazy over it, and I’m sure your sweet baby will too!

Question: What is your favorite fall produce item? Are you excited about sharing it with your baby/kids? 

If you make something from JoyFoodSunshine I would love to see your creations! 

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