Monday, November 11, 2013

Homemade Pantry: Pumpkin Bread

I know pumpkin is everywhere right now but I can't get enough.  Apples, I've had enough of.  Have I mentioned we have a ton of apples from our CSA?  I signed up for the base share and an extra fruit share.  Over the summer it was great, we got a ton of variety and the fruit was usually different from what was in the base share.  But for the fall we get apples in the base share and then we get MORE apples in the fruit share. I'm starting to feel a bit like Bubba in Forrest Gump.  I've made apple sauce, apple butter, baked apples, apple crisp, apple couscous, apple sausage and kale, and every day I eat an apple for a snack ... I'm over apples.



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But I haven't gotten sick of pumpkin yet! We really like this pumpkin bread by Trader Joe's:




















Super easy, just add eggs and water and bake. My kind of baking. But a couple of weeks ago I bought two actual pie pumpkins at Apple Annies in Greece, NY. (We were there for cider and they were an impulse buy).  Who knew that pie pumpkins look like the thing on the left, not the thing on the right?

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I had grand plans of making pumpkin chili and serving them in the pumpkin (kind of like here) but as usual with my grand plans I didn't get around to it and then the pumpkins started to rot.  Not one to waste food I decided to roast them and figure out what to do with them later.  The roasted pumpkin sat in the fridge for a few more days before I was once again in danger of wasting food so decided to try pumpkin bread.

Here is my recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman's Any Fruit/Vegetable Any Nut muffin recipe (in How to Cook Everything).

Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup nuts (I used walnuts and pecans)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg


***To roast a pie pumpkin just cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place cut side down in in baking pan and roast at 375 until soft (usually about an hour).***

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and then combine.  Spoon into a greased 9x5 pan and bake at 350 for about an hour (until an inserted fork comes out clean).

This makes a really dense, moist bread.  The pumpkin, orange and ginger combine to make a unique blend. I brought it into work and one of my coworkers said she could really taste the pumpkin, it tasted like a vegetable (I took it as a compliment even though I'm not sure she meant it as one).

The pictures I took turned out terrible.  A combination of it being dark out when I made it and still learning the semi-automatic settings of my camera.  Here are a few that turned out okay.






















I had a bit of extra batter so I put some in these cast iron thingies (I'm so up on my kitchen terminology).  I actually liked the bread that ended up in these the best - maybe because it was smaller and the iron could distribute the heat more evenly.  Or maybe it is mental and I just think everything cooked in cast iron tastes better.  Have I mentioned I love my cast iron cookware?  I think I have.




2 comments:

  1. I have always roasted my own pumpkin for pie etc. It's super easy and you can freeze the puree to use as you need it, because one pumpkin makes a lot more than just a 16 oz. can.

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    1. They were also $1 each, so a very good deal! Thanks for stopping by.

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