Pumpkin Juice Royal Icing

I'm pretty sure this is what they use to decorate cookies at Hogwarts. 

Let me fill you in a bit on how these came to be. I was recipe testing another recipe which involved straining a can of pumpkin puree. There's a LOT of liquid in pumpkin puree, so once the can was strained, I was left with about 3/4 cup pumpkin juice.

At first, I thought I'd use it in a smoothie. That thought was in my head for all of 2 seconds before another thought took over, one that said, "PUMPKIN JUICE ROYAL ICING!"

I used my good ol' royal icing recipe (actually, I halved it), replacing the water with the pumpkin juice. I left out any flavorings/extracts. To strain the juice, line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth. Place the contents of a 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree in the lined sieve. Let strain for at least 2 hours or overnight. Squeeze the cheesecloth before using to remove most all of the juice.

Here are my takeaways:

• it works! Ohmygosh!
• the strained pumpkin will make about 3/4 cup juice. You'll need 1/2 cup for the halved royal icing recipe.
• the icing took a bit longer to mix, and never formed a stiff peak for me.

• the icing is a very light orange...more like ivory. (It's untinted on the pumpkins, and I added a bit of brown coloring for the stems.)
• dries beautifully, just like normal royal icing

How does it taste? Pretty much like regular royal icing. I feel like I might taste a wee bit of pumpkin, but it might be projecting on my part. How fun would it be, though, to use this icing to decorate these Spiced Pumpkin Cut-Out Cookies?!?

Now, WHY would you make it? Well, because you CAN. Because you love all things pumpkin. Because pumpkin juice is full of good-for-you beta-carotene and potassium. And because, I think my fellow bushy-haired girl, Hermoine Granger, would approve. ♥