Fall Pumpkin Bread

When Garett over at Vanilla Garlic posted a recipe for Maple Pumpkin Bread earlier in the month, I clipped it to my Evernote cookbook with a note saying, "Make when weather drops below 85". Well, it's below 85. In fact, we've had highs int he mid 60s for most of the week and Sunday was a proper rainy fall day. Which meant I wasn't going to die if I turned on the oven and heated up the house for a bit. I had a sugar pie pumpkin that needed cooking and this recipe that needed making.

As with most of my cooking, I used the recipe for a guideline and added my own tweaks. I know what flavors I like in cooking and most of the time and play around with spices recipes. I've only had one really bad experience in which I added too many cloves to gingerbread cookies and everyone's mouth went numb . Oops.

In general, when baking, and especially when baking quick breads, there are simple ways to make "up" the "health" quotient. You can replace up to 1/2 of the called for oil with equal parts pumpkin, banana, or apple sauce. I keep frozen bananas on hand for this very purpose. Banana  and applesauce more or less disappear as far as taste goes, although I think banana gives a better texture. Pumpkin to replace oil can add interesting depth to blueberry muffins or zucchini bread.

Similarly, you can easily replace 1/2 -2/3 of white flour with whole wheat or whole wheat pastry (my preference). The crumb will be a little more dense, but when you add extra fiber and protein,  I'm happy to make the exchange. WW pastry flour will produce a lighter softer crumb, very similar to all purpose.

As far as the spices, I really wing it. I love nutmeg and allspice - much more than cinnamon. AndI find clove and ginger give pumpkin breads a lightness. A bit of orange or lemon zest is also good.

The cranberries on the bottom is borrowed from a ginger cranberry cake recipe from the book Sweet. The flavor is fantastic - tart little bits of cranberry - and the color just scream "fall".

Using the recipe as a guideline, here are my tweaks:
-Roasted one sugar pie pumpkin at 350F for 90 min. Used roasted flesh instead of canned pumpkin

-1.5 c flour  to .5 c. all purpose and 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour

-.5 c oil to .25 c. oil and 1 mashed banana

pureed in my handy, dandy food processor

-added chopped crystalized ginger

-lined the bottom of my tin with cranberries

-added dashes of nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and clove (I was careful with the clove). Maybe 1/8 tsp each?

All prepped and ready to go in the oven!

Yum

 The final cake is absolutely wonderful and will be my go-to pumpkin cake/bread recipe. The crystalized ginger adds a little kick, and the cranberries burst with tartness.

In future, I'd reduce the amount of sugar by 1/4 c. With the maple syrup and banana, you don't need the full cup of sugar.

Happy Fall.