Insanely Healthy Pumpkin Bread

November 5, 2009

I’ve lived in Ontario for 19 years. Every single year, from July to October, my mind is boggled with the bounty of the earth. The ground and the farmers bring forth such plenty in colour and variety that I barely comprehend how it can be so.

I bought a cabbage the size of a pumpkin for 99 cents and made cabbage soup. The house is fragrant with baked squash and apple pie. Truly, I could sometimes fall on my knees in gratitude to have been so blessed.

On Sunday, the oven goes on at noon, after workout and lunch. It sees a steady stream of food go in and out of its front door all afternoon. It warms the house and I don’t have to cook for days. If I’m going to peel one onion, I may as well peel 6. The kitchen counter is a balancing act of roasted and baked food. In the tin foil is a pan of beets. I can never understand boiling a root vegetable when roasting is so fantastic and easy. Wrap a bunch of them, unpeeled, in foil. In the oven for 1-2 hours, cool them, peel them, taste so much richer and sweeter. Throw in a medley of different ones, even better.

Pumpkin bread and roasted beets.

I’m on a pumpkin kick. Not Pumpkin Pie Filling, oh never. Just E.D. Smith Pure Pumpkin in cans. At our stores, it’s on the shelf beside the pie filling. Maybe your store has the squash/pumpkin combo, and it would work just as well.

Yellow vegetables take a little more work to figure in to every day. I put a plop in lentil or bean soup.

But my favorite thing is this bread . I make it 2 loaves at a time so I can just use 1 whole can of pumpkin. I added millet and wheat bran to this one. Every loaf’s a new adventure.

Ingredients

5 small or 4 larger bananas, mashed
1 can pure pumpkin, the big can, 796ml/28oz
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2c honey (I often leave this out if it’s for the family; they won’t know if you don’t tell them, my whole philosophy to cooking, and perhaps a good title for that cookbook we’re all going to collaborate on)
1/2 c oil, I use a canola/olive blend
4 eggs
5 c spelt flour (or whatever flour)
2 t b pdr
2 t b soda
salt if you want to; I don’t cook with it myself
4 t pumpkin pie spice
2 t cinnamon
anything you’re trying to use up; flax, wheat germ, the cereal your kids forced you to buy and wouldn’t eat (I’m presently adding 3c of Bran Flakes to this recipe and you can’t taste it; I would not add Honeycomb or Count Chocula, but it’s quite forgiving)

Method

You know already. Fling it all in a bowl, stir till you figure it’s stirred enough or somebody needs you for something. I make a child stand there and stir while I add ingredients over their shoulder. When they whine that it’s too hard to stir, you’re pretty well done. 325, 1 hour.

Pour into 2 waxed-paper lined (if you want to ) loaf pans.

My friend makes quick breads by brushing butter on the inside of the pan and sprinkling/coating with flax seed. It’s really good.

I love it with honey.

Love it with soup.

Love it with this ED Smith More Fruit Cherry Blueberry Jam, which I can no longer buy because I have a little problem with it.

Bread and jam.

Since no visit with me is complete without some talk of colour, visit 12 Blueprints and see what happens to the True Summer base when you blend in a touch of Spring, in Sonja Is A Light Summer. Colour is so deeply embedded in human psychology that we feel it more than we see it. Nobody is impervious to it but not everyone can explain their reactions. Watch what happens when you take a woman who hasn’t been a student for several years and has decided to understand how to buy clothes and makeup that let her feel like her best self, in Pam Is A Dark Winter.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis, Food & Recipes

Comments

3 Responses to “Insanely Healthy Pumpkin Bread”

Susan Lyon on November 6th, 2009 12:38 am

Wanted to know what size loaf pans to use! I’ve recently become aware that there are seemingly endless number of sizes available. (I have to eat gluten-free, and often the recipes call for an unusual size.) I’m in the U.S., so if you have the size in inches that would be helpful, but I could do the math for metric as well. Thank you so much! Love your site!
Mary Graffunder on November 6th, 2009 1:17 am

I live in the States and am not familiar with the abbreviation “pdr”. What does that stand for?
Christine Scaman on November 6th, 2009 5:11 pm

Hi, Susan,

I measured the base of the pan as 7″ X 3.2″ . It’s 2.2″ deep. It flares a bit in the normal pan way. So I guess it’s smaller loaf pan, but the batter is kind of wet, and the bread is moist too. In a larger pan, it would take longer to cook and the top may darken too much. In this size, when the pan is full almost to the top, it takes a good hour.

Sorry, Mary, that’s my imprecision about cooking coming out. Pdr is for powder, as in baking powder. Sometimes, even I can’t understand a recipe I’ve copied.