Great British Bake Off Helena Garcia explains how to use up your pumpkin after carving your lantern

When I was a child, we didn't make pumpkin lanterns. We always had to carve our Halloween decorations out of turnips. In fact, so widespread was this idea that our school ran a competition at the annual bonfire for best turnip lantern. Imagine my pride when I won with this creation:

How times change. Now, our supermarkets are full of pumpkins and there will be many of us spending the weekend using them to create spooky decorations to put outside our houses. And, at the risk of offending turnip fans, surely pumpkins are far more tasty for eating.

Someone who is a big fan of cooking with pumpkins is Great British Bake Off finalist, and self-confessed kitchen witch, Helena Garcia.

This year I visited Helena to set her the challenge of coming up with ways for us to be less wasteful with our pumpkins, knowing how many people scoop out the flesh and throw it away.

Helena's advice is to think carefully about which pumpkin to buy, not necessarily choosing the largest variety most often associated with Halloween. Instead, she says many supermarkets have smaller, tastier pumpkins which are cheaper, make great decorations and are even tastier to eat.

Here's her recipe for a delicious pumpkin pie:

IngredientsFor the gingerbread pastry

(Or alternatively you can simply use ready roll pastry or a pre-made pastry case.)

• 400g (14 oz) plain flour

• 80g (3 oz) icing sugar

• 2½ teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 250g (9 oz) unsalted butter, cold and cut in cubes

• 3 egg yolks

• 50 ml (2 fl oz) ice cold water

IngredientsFor the filling

• 1 x 425g (15oz) tin pumpkin purée or make your own by baking a sugar pumpkin or butternut squash for half an hour and pureeing the flesh

• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

• 235ml evaporated milk

• 200g (1 cup) caster sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon flour

• 1 egg yolk for egg wash

To serve (optional)

• 2 tablespoons stem ginger syrup

• 200g double or whipping cream

Method

To make the gingerbread pastry, add the flour, icing sugar, spices and salt to a bowl (it can be done in the food processor too). Add the cubed butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolks and water and continue to bring it together. Tip onto a clean surface and knead it a couple of times to bring it together. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll to a ½ cm thick on a lightly floured surface. Line a 9” pie dish with the pastry and trim the edges.

Place into a line baking dish, cover with cling film and refrigerate the snake, leaves and pie base until ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).

Make the filling by combining all ingredients into a medium bowl. The filling will be quite liquid, but it will set in the oven.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the filling sets. 

Helena also suggests using up any excess pumpkin to make a simple face scrub. She said: "Pumpkin is not only a delicious fruit, which also serves as a fabulous lantern to guide you through the darkness of winter, it is also full of nutrients that are beneficial for the skin and wonderfully soothing and moisturising for all skin types.

"This is a great recipe to use up any leftover pumpkin purée you may have, or if out of season, you can make your own purée with butternut squash. Sugar scrubs are not only good for removing all those dead skin cells and allowing new skin to glow, but they also stimulate circulation and help even out skin tone."

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons pumpkin purée, homemade (see method above) or from a can

• 200g (1 cup) brown or pure cane sugar

• 2 tablespoons sweet almond oil

• 2–3 drops cinnamon essential oil

Method

If making your own pumpkin purée, preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) [400°F/Gas mark 6] and bake a large piece of unpeeled pumpkin or 1⁄2 butternut squash for 30 minutes. Scoop out the flesh into a food processor and process it into a purée. Alternatively, use canned pumpkin.

In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients well with clean hands or using latex gloves. Place the mixture in a 250-g [9-oz] jar and keep refrigerated until ready to use. It will keep for a month.

To use, apply the scrub all over your body and face in gentle circular movements and rinse well.

Watch Helena show me how to make both of these recipes: