Easy Instant Pot Pumpkin Butter to Make Your Mouth Water

You’ll love how easy it is to make warmly spiced pumpkin butter in your Instant Pot pressure cooker!

two jars of Instant Pot pumpkin butter with a blue and white napkin in the background

Instant Pot pumpkin butter is a deliciously easy spread for fall–use it on biscuits, muffins, dinner rolls, or pancakes!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. If you make a purchase, this site may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Once fall rolls around each year, I start stocking my fridge and freezer with delicious spreads for all of our holiday baked goods.

There’s just something so comforting about a warmly spiced fruit butter to top off a freshly baked homemade bread or a homemade dinner roll!

Since we go apple picking each fall, I regularly make homemade Instant Pot apple butter, apple butter with maple syrup, or Instant Pot pumpkin apple butter.

But I know sometimes we busy moms don’t have time to peel and chop apples. Or maybe you just want a spread that doesn’t include apples. Or perhaps you don’t have an immersion blender used in those recipes.

So today I’m sharing another family favorite fall spread–this recipe for homemade Instant Pot pumpkin butter!

It’s on my list of the best Instant Pot pumpkin recipes, and for good reason.

This Instant Pot recipe is much faster than using your slow cooker to make pumpkin butter, so you can enjoy this pumpkin spice spread in a fraction of the time it normally takes!

pressure cooker pumpkin butter spread on a halved dinner roll and served on a white plate, with the jar of pumpkin butter in the background.

What is Pumpkin Butter?

If you aren’t familiar with pumpkin butter, you may be surprised to find out that it doesn’t actually have butter in it!

In fact, no fruit butters generally contain butter. Instead, they’re a dairy-free spread made from cooking and pureeing fruit, usually with spices or sweeteners.

And if you’re wondering, yes, a pumpkin is botanically a fruit, since it contains the plant’s seed-bearing structures. So that’s why we classify this as a fruit butter.

In the case of homemade pumpkin butter, we cook canned pumpkin puree together with brown sugar for some depth of sweetness, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, plus a little apple juice or apple cider, and some vanilla extract (or maple extract!).

The result is a smooth condiment with flavors reminiscent of pumpkin pie!

This is one of the best pressure cooker recipes for fall, in my opinion!

How to Use Pumpkin Butter

There are so many delicious ways to enjoy this delicious pumpkin butter!

Is Pumpkin Butter Healthy?

Pumpkin butter does have some sugar in it, but it’s a relatively small amount when you consider you’ll probably only use 1-2 tablespoons of pumpkin butter at a time. This makes it generally lower in calories than many spreads, and a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Pumpkin is also a good source of vitamin A, so you’ll love getting those extra vitamins in such an indulgent form!

overhead view of a jar of homemade pumpkin butter

How to Make Pumpkin Butter in the Instant Pot

It’s really easy to make this simple pumpkin butter! Cooking everything under pressure allows the flavors to meld together much faster.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

  • Pumpkin puree
  • Brown sugar
  • Pumpkin pie spice
  • Cinnamon
  • Apple juice or cider
  • Vanilla extract or maple extract
two jars of pumpkin butter with a spoon next to them

How to Make this Instant Pot Pumpkin Butter Recipe:

(Full printable recipe is available below)

Combine ingredients. First, you’ll combine all of the ingredients in the Instant Pot.

ingredients for pumpkin butter combined in the Instant Pot prior to cooking

Take note that adding liquid (in this case, apple juice or cider) is important, because it keeps the puree from being too viscous.

Without the liquid, the pumpkin puree can scorch and the pot won’t be able to reach pressure, which will result in the BURN error on your Instant Pot.

Some models of Instant Pot are more apt to receive a BURN error during cooking.

I have three Instant Pots, and I purposely tested this recipe in the model that is most likely to get a BURN error (my DUO EVO Plus), just to make sure we had the right amount of liquid to cook properly but not be too runny.

Pressure cook. Next, you’ll cook at high pressure for 5 minutes, followed by a quick release of pressure (you can also allow a natural release if you’d prefer).

freshly cooked pumpkin butter in the Instant Pot, stirred with a wooden spoon

Stir, cool, and store. After the pressure has released, carefully remove the valve and stir the pumpkin butter.

Transfer it to jars for storage, and allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge or freezer.

homemade Instant Pot pumpkin butter spread on a dinner roll

Notes and Adaptations:

  • Store pumpkin butter in an airtight container or mason jars. You can also freeze jars of pumpkin butter–just make sure your jars are freezer-safe. To freeze smaller portions, you can freeze pumpkin butter in ice cube trays and then pop those cubes into a freezer bag.
  • If you prefer to skip the canned pumpkin and use homemade pumpkin puree made with those little pie pumpkins instead, you’ll need about 2 cups.
  • I like using apple juice or apple cider, but you can use water in a pinch.
  • If you want sweeter pumpkin butter, increase the brown sugar to 3/4 cup.
  • You can use maple syrup instead of brown sugar, if desired.

Recommended Equipment:

Yield: Approx. 2 cups

Instant Pot Pumpkin Butter

two jars of Instant Pot pumpkin butter

This easy Instant Pot pumpkin butter is warmly spiced and delightfully sweet--perfect for topping a biscuit, dinner roll, or pancake this fall!

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Additional Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 15-oz pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1/4 tsp maple extract

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients in the insert pot of the Instant Pot. Stir to combine well.
  2. Close the lid and set the vent to the sealed position. Select a cook time of 5 minutes at high pressure.
  3. Once the cook time is complete, perform a quick release of pressure (you can also perform a natural release if you prefer).
  4. After the pressure has released and the valve drops, carefully open the lid and stir the contents.
  5. Transfer to airtight containers or jars and allow to cool completely before refrigerating.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

32

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 21Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 2mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 0gSugar: 4gProtein: 0g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is not guaranteed for accuracy.

Want more delicious recipe ideas?

Check out even more mealtime inspiration on my Pinterest boards!

collage image featuring two photos of pumpkin butter. One photo shows a jar of the homemade pumpkin butter and another shows it spread on a fresh dinner roll.

Categories:

, , , , ,

Easy family-friendly recipes in your inbox!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments

  1. Thank you for this recipe. Made a batch last weekend. So delicious. Second batch, doubled it this time, in the instant pot right now. Going to put this in 4oz jars and give away with homemade sourdough bagels to my coworkers for Christmas.

    1. Chrysti Benner says:

      Thank you so much, Evelyn! I have to say, I’m a little jealous of your coworkers! 😉 That’s so thoughtful of you to give them such a delicious gift!

  2. I guess you’re not allowed to say which models are more apt to burn. Mine just said burn in the middle and now looks like it’s cooking again so we’ll have to see how it turns out ☹️

    1. Chrysti Benner says:

      Oh no! I’m sorry to hear this, Cindy. I hope it turned out okay without burning!

  3. Margie Welch says:

    This turned out well! Thanks for posting. I used frozen pumpkin. A few adjustments I made-I used 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp maple flavor, the extra brown sugar. And cooked it about 7 minutes in my instapot. I think I should have cooked it about ten minutes, because my pumpkin was a little watery. I was very pleased with the results.

    1. Chrysti Benner says:

      Thank you, Margie! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I love hearing about your tweaks, too–they sound like great additions! 🙂

You'll Also Love..