Pecan Pumpkin Butter

About 6 years back, my husband brought home a basket of goodies from work during thanksgiving. It had few goodies along with a bottle of organic pumpkin butter. I didn't know what to do with it for quite some time. I tried baking with it using it in place of peanut butter and it was quite good. That was when I was introduced to fruit butters. Having made nut butters, and having made Apple butter, making a combination of fruit and nut butter wasn't hard. Question is why did I think of this? I saw someone (don't remember who it was) announcing a giveaway of Pecan Pumpkin butter jar. I have no clue what are the ingredients of that ready made fruit butter except for of course pumpkin and pecans. I came up with this which, not only is great on toast or some graham crackers, but makes wonderful gifts during holiday season.

One year back - No Knead Savory Buns, Sourdough Banana Aebleskiver
Ingredients:
Pumpkin - One 15 Oz can (Or home made puree 2 cups)
Pecans - generous 1/2 cup
Apple juice - 1/2 cup (Or use orange juice)
Maple Syrup - 1/4 cup
Brown Sugar or turbinado sugar - 1/4 - 1/2 cup (depending on how sweet you like it)
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg - two pinches
Clove powder - 1/8 tsp
Ginger powder - 1/8 tsp
All Spice powder - 1/8 tsp

Method:
In a skillet, toast pecans for few minutes until nice aroma comes. Take it out and set aside. In a saucepan, heat pumpkin puree, apple juice, maple syrup. Use a whisk to constantly whisk it. Add all the spice powders to it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes whisking constantly. It will splutter quite a bit. Keep it on medium or low heat and continue to stir frequently.
Take toasted pecans in a blender or a food processor. Add 1/4 cup of brown sugar or turbinado sugar to it and pulse till it is a smooth powder. Towards the end, it will start clumping. Turn off the blender and add it to the saucepan. Whisk vigorously to break all the lumps and mix them well. Keep it on low heat until it struggles to splutter or it doesn't splutter easily. Mixture will be creamy, not too thick. Check for the sugar level and add more if required. I actually used the entire 1/2 cup since I wanted it to be a little sweeter. Turn off the heat. When cool, store in a clean dry jar and refrigerate or freeze. I do not know much about canning, but if you are into canning, you could can them and use it as gifts for holidays. The spice level of this was perfect but you can vary to your needs. This one was so good that my kid ate it calling 'Pumpkin Jam' as is.

Enjoy.