New Recipe: Baked Acorn Squash

A few weeks back, hubby and I stopped at a farmers market and I kept overhearing people talk about acorn squash and how good it was. We ended up leaving the market with two of them. I then came home and looked up a recipe for baked acorn squash. Here is the recipe and the results.

Classic Baked Acorn Squash

• 1 Acorn Squash
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 2 Tsp Maple Syrup
• Dash of salt (if using unsalted butter)

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Using a strong chef's knife, and perhaps a rubber mallet to help, cut the acorn squash in half, lengthwise, from stem to end. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff in the center of each half. Score the insides of each half several times with a sharp knife. Place each half in a baking pan, cut side up. Add about a 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the baking pan so that the skins don't burn and the squash doesn't get dried out.

Coat the inside of each half with 1/2 a Tbsp of butter. Add a dash of salt if you are using unsalted butter. Add a Tbsp of brown sugar to the cavity of each half. Dribble on a teaspoon of maple syrup to each half.


Bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the squash is very soft and the tops are browned. Do not undercook. When finished, remove from oven and let cool a little before serving. Spoon any buttery sugar sauce that has not already been absorbed by the squash over the exposed areas.

Serves 2 to 4, depending on how much squash you like to eat.

 Review: My husband liked it, I didn't. I think it was the maple syrup part that I didn't like, because that was all I could taste - I am not a maple syrup person (not even on pancakes, which I love). I do think this would make a decent breakfast when using maple syrup in the recipe (not that I would eat it). If we cook this again I think we'll be testing out cinnamon, sugar and cloves or nutmeg. There are variations of this recipe on the internet so feel free to find your own and test it out. Acorn squash is pretty cheap at farmers markets (we got two for $1) and by itself it tastes a lot like a mild sweet potato.