Ann’s baked acorn squash
Sweet and Savory
Ann’s version of baked acorn squash is autumn’s flavors at their best, served on a dinner plate. It’s a dinner side dish that is good enough to be the main course. I always make enough so I can have some as a late night snack. It’s one of my favorite fall foods. And it’s simple and easy to prepare!
Ann is a close friend of mine. We have a lot of fun together. (Don’t ask, won’t tell 😉). One night she had me for dinner and made this baked acorn squash. She served it as a side dish but it was the star of the show as far as I was concerned. I didn’t bother eating anything else on the plate until my squash was gone.
The colors of fall show off in the produce department
The colors of fall don’t stop with tree leaves, even the produce department comes alive with color. Pumpkins, all kinds of squash and gourds in all shapes and sizes provide a grand display of autumn colors. Autumn harvest crops are growing in variety every year. Not all pumpkins are orange anymore!
Taking time to take it in
Maybe you have seen our post What Your Meat and Potatoes are Telling You. In that post I admit to lingering in the produce department (perhaps too long) when I shop. I choose each item carefully before it goes in my cart. My sister describes this time consuming scrutiny as “fondling my food”. She has decided to limit her shopping trips with me because it’s too tedious for her. 🤗 She is an “in and out” shopper.
But really, who can blame me, especially in the fall. There are bright colors around every corner. So what if I take my time strolling the isles admiring the bounty. I won’t be seeing some of these bright beautiful gems again for a year, so I am going to enjoy peeking at the pumpkins and gawking at the gourds!
Squash at it’s best
On a recent trip to the grocery store, a bin of small squashes in an array of patterns and colors captured my full attention. These brightly colored squashes were nothing short of beautiful all jumbled together. They were similar to the size of an acorn squash. I knew I couldn’t walk away without buying at least a couple of them and was pondering what I would do with them once I got them home when I thought of Ann’s acorn squash.
After much deliberation, I finally decided on a couple of these small colorful squash. Can you agree that they were meant to be in pictures? So I am sharing my pictures and Ann’s acorn squash recipe with you. It’s definitely a recipe worth sharing!
If you are a purest about vegetables being served as a savory dish, this recipe is not for you. Ann’s acorn squash is dripping with autumn’s sweet flavors, literally. I tell people it’s like a dessert with nutritional value. And it does have a lot of nutritional value. It’s squash! If you have someone with a sweet tooth in your life, that hasn’t developed a taste for squash before now, make this recipe for them.
Like most of our recipes, Ann’s baked squash is really easy to make.
See for yourself
Just look at these beauties. Is it any wonder I couldn’t resist?
I stayed true to my reputation for seemingly endless contemplation when I tried to choose two squashes from the spectacular array of colors and shapes in the bin!
Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:
| 2 acorn squash |
| 4 tablespoons butter |
| brown sugar it can be dark or light |
| maple syrup (about 4 tablespoons) |
About real maple syrup
Not all syrups are alike. In the average grocery store, most of the products in the “syrup” section are not maple syrup at all. But they are made to look like maple syrup. You will find real maple syrup in one very small section of “pancake syrups”. There is no substitute for real maple syrup. The other stuff made of high fructose corn syrup with maple flavoring is not at all similar for any cooking purpose.
I use dark maple syrup. It has a deep maple flavor. Most of the maple syrup you see, especially if they are in fancy bottles, will be marked amber and is true to that name in color. It is a light golden brown. It has a lighter taste too.
I live in New England, where there are lots of maple trees. The liquid which seeps out of the maple trees when tapped is called sap. Sap is lighter in color in the early part of syrup season and later in the season the sap runs darker. How and when sap is collected, and how it becomes syrup is pretty interesting. I wrote about the process in our post for HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE.
How to know you are buying the real thing
There are a couple of ways to know if the maple syrup you are buying is the real thing. The first thing is to look at the label. If it says maple flavored, you got the wrong stuff. Look at the ingredients listing. Real maple syrup has no other ingredients. Only real maple syrup can be called “maple syrup”.
The second way to know the real thing, is price. There is no quick way to make maple syrup. The entire process takes human intervention. Also, there is a limited supply of the real thing too. Sap season doesn’t last long in any given year and some seasons are better than others. Hence, real maple syrup is not cheap. Maple syrup is a 100% natural ingredient. The only processing it has gone through is boiling.
I am a thrifty shopper. I save money at the grocery store whenever I can, but substituting pure maple syrup with maple flavored high fructose corn syrup is a swap I would never make. Even if you continue to use the other stuff for pancakes, buy some of the real thing for cooking and baking. Don’t bother with the fancy bottles, they are way overpriced. Get a small jug. You don’t need to add a lot of maple syrup to a recipe for the sweetness and flavor to shine through.
This is WHAT TO DO:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Preparing the squash
Squash is tough! The skin is tough and the meat is dense. Peeling the thick skin from a pumpkin or squash is a long tedious task. It’s too much work for me. I have found the easiest way for me to cook them is to baking them in the oven. That’s how Ann makes this squash side dish too. Baking is not only easier, it retains the nutritional value of your squash or pumpkin and provides a sweet condensed flavor. That’s a win/win in my book.
Cut the squash open lengthwise. Be very careful. Use a long sharp knife. A sharp knife is much safer than a blunt one. With a sharp blade you can get the job done without having to use excessive pressure to saw through the tough exterior. That’s where you can get in trouble when using a less than sharp blade. With a dull blade you have to strongarm making the cut instead of just guiding your knife to do it’s job. Sharp kitchen knives are basic and necessary tools for a home cook. Like any other tool, choose wisely and keep them maintained.
It’s best not to cut the squash while it is resting on the rounded side. That’s another way to get hurt. Get the flattest end, (in this case it was the top side) lay it on the cutting board and cut from the other side, down.
Clean out the seeds
When you open the squash up, you will see a cavity with a lot of seeds. You need to get the seeds out. I find it easiest to pull the seeds and membrane out by hand. When all the seeds have been pulled out, then I use the sharp edge of a serving spoon to scrape the sides of the cavity to get any remaining stringy membrane left.
After the seeds are removed and the membrane has been scraped from the sides of the cavity, take a fork and pierce the inside a few times. These tiny holes are going to carry flavor to the meat of the squash while it cooks. 😋
Get the squash halves ready for baking
We are going to use baking dishes. Baking dishes have sides, as opposed to a baking sheet which is either flat or has a very small lip on the outside. The deeper dish creates moist heat, which helps cook the squash. I didn’t always own 2 large glass baking dishes. I still consider it a luxury. Use what you have, but stay with pans that have sides. Keep space between the squash halves. That will ensure you they will cook evenly.
As you are putting the squash halves into the baking dish, give the inside and edges a good rub down with brown sugar. Because the squash is moist, the sugar will start melting into a thin sauce as you rub, making it easy to coat the inside. Then, the final step before baking is to place butter into the well of each of the squash halves.
Here are the squash halves in baking dishes. Dark brown sugar has been rubbed all over the inside of the squash and it has sunk into all the places pierced with the fork. The final step before putting it in the oven is to place the butter in the middle of the well. It is going to melt into the squash along with the brown sugar.
Put the baking dish in the oven, preheated to 350 degrees. It will take about 45 minutes to cook the squash to tender. The maple syrup is optional 😋. But so worth the extra calories. After all, it’s only a tablespoon of a 100% natural unprocessed sugar, you could do a lot worse. If you are going to go for it, let the squash bake for 30 minutes before adding the syrup to the well of the squash. Then put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. If I were to choose a flavor profile as a favorite, one of the top contenders would be butter, maple syrup and brown sugar. So for me it is a no brainer to add the maple syrup.
And here they are just out of the oven
Once I get one of the squash halves on my plate, I add some salt and start mashing the meat into the middle, so all the flavors mix together. You can also take a fork full of squash from the sides and dip it in the syrup in the cavity on the way up. It is so, so good!
ANN’S ACORN SQUASH
Ingredients
- 2 acorn squash or other small autumn squash
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar light or dark
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
Prepare Ingredients
- Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise. Clean out the seeds and membrane from the cavity. Pierce the inside and edges of each half with a fork.
- Rub the inside of the squash with brown sugar, put in a baking dish leaving plenty of room in between. Add 1 tablespoon of butter in the cavity of each of the squash halves.
Cooking Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Put baking dishes with squash halves in the oven for 45 minutes, until squash is tender. If you are adding maple syrup (highly recommended), after the first 30 minutes add 1 tablespoon maple syrup to the cavity of the squash, over the melted butter, and bake for another 15 minutes.