Week 28: Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread?? In the middle of the summer? Why not? I’ve always wondered why pumpkin has to be relegated to Fall and Winter. I absolutely love pumpkin desserts and, since we are in the middle of July, it has been a loooong time since I’ve had any. Maybe we’ll just call this our Christmas in July post!

Now, considering how much I enjoy pumpkin desserts, why haven’t we ever made pumpkin bread? I really can’t explain that phenomenon. Pumpkin pies are my typical dessert because….well, it’s pie! But, honestly, if you love pumpkin, pie gives you so much of it!! But, we aren’t talking about pumpkin pie today, we are talking about pumpkin bread and we are pretty pumped to make it (quick breads are excellent recipes to keep on hand since they are some of the easiest ways to enjoy baked goods).

For our recipe, we used a new book to this blog, Baking With Whole Grains by Valerie Baer. Our substitutions this week were using Sola sugar substitute for the regular sugar, and 1/2 regular brown sugar and 1/2 Swerve brown sugar substitute. Again, using all Swerve brown sugar produces a really weird, off-putting “cooling effect” in your mouth when you eat it and we just can’t go for that! When we were researching we found other recipes with nutmeg so we added 1/4 tsp. to this recipe. For the optional ingredients, we added the cloves but only 1/8 tsp. and did not add the nuts or raisins.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups thick pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup + 1 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat bread flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves, optional
• 1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts, optional
• 1/2 cup chopped raisins, optional

Directions

1. Combine the sugars, pumpkin, and oil. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, optional cloves, optional walnuts, and optional raisins.
3. Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients. Stir and fold just until moistened. Let the streaks of flour remain.
4. Pour into 2 greased or parchment-lined 8×4″ baking pans.
5. Bake 45-55 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven or until tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool loaves in pans 10 minutes. Remove bread from the pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Our Experience

We started with our ingredients, as usual. Of course, we used canned pumpkin. First of all, it is easier and second, I like the texture of it so much better than homemade.

Since this was a recipe that was written using whole grains, we didn’t have to worry about making any additions or if it would turn out dry or not. This recipe uses more pumpkin than other pumpkin breads and probably so due to the added moisture it provides.

We got everything mixed up and it is difficult to leave things “unmixed” when you are a little OCD. (What I’m trying to say is we didn’t leave any dry streaks because neither Aubrey or myself could bring ourselves to leave the mixture that way.) Our bread pans are about an inch bigger on each side and when we divided the mixture in two (we weigh things all the time to get exactly even), we realized we would have a couple of flat loaves. It was at this time that we decided to make one full loaf and use the leftover batter to make some mini loaves. (Which, by the way, gave me the opportunity to toast some pecans and add them to the mini loaves since I love nuts in my bread while no one else in the house does.) How much did we put in our big loaf?? We don’t know, it was just decided by what looked “about right”. The rest was put into our mini loaf pan and we baked them at the same time taking the mini ones out earlier than the single loaf.

We had enough batter to make 4 mini loaves and they were darn cute!

What we liked.

This received a 5 out of 5. Everybody loved this one. And, also, the ones with nuts!! What the heck!? Here I thought I was going to get four mini-loaves and the next thing I know, they’re all gone. Three other people ate them so I only got one!! (That’s probably for the better, or I really would have eaten ALL of them.) I think it was the cuteness of them because the knew they had nuts!

This bread was incredibly moist and that didn’t change over the course of the few days that we had it. For the most part, I love the texture and nuttiness that whole grains provide and those qualities only enhanced this bread, in my opinion. The fact that we were eating pumpkin in July was absolutely a treat this time of year! It had all the things I love about pumpkin desserts: pumpkin and warm spices.

Of course, I liked the nut version better than without them while those who ate my mini-loaves all stated they liked the bread without them. (Grrrr!! Then why did you eat the ones with nuts!? 🙂 )

The sugar substitutes were virtually impossible to taste. Logan, my sugar substitute detective, didn’t mention that she could taste them this week. I think using half regular and half substitute for the brown sugar was an important decision. We made oatmeal cookies the same day and used about 75% brown sugar substitute and the cooling effect was present.

What we would change.

I don’t think we would make any changes other than possibly making all of them mini-loaves?? Either that or purchase some 8×4″ pans (which I doubt will happen). I suppose if you liked raisins in pumpkin bread, those would be a nice addition. I know a lot of people like chocolate chips in their pumpkin bread and, of course, those would also be good.

What we learned.

We have made a few quick breads to this didn’t provide a lot of new learning experiences. I also think that the fact that this was a whole grain recipe really made a difference in the finished product.

I will say that I learned my family will eat nuts in baked goods, they just don’t prefer them. So, if I want the nut versions all for myself, I am going to have to hide them next time! (Still salty. 😉 )

Until next week, Happy Baking!