Just a quick share on a recipe I came up with recently. My son is a big fan of baked goods. He likes bagels, baguettes, biscuits, cookies and cereal, and would be happy to fill up on them all the time (as would I). So my latest theory is to make him breads that have all kinds of good things baked in, and he seems to be loving it.
Here’s the latest one I came up with, and it’s great because it uses only things you would probably have around. I make it minimally sweet to keep the sugar down, but you may want to boost the sugar (or whatever sweetener you prefer) if you’d like it to be more like a sweet bread.
It has a wonderful texture. Very tender crumb with a deep brown crust. Thanks to the pumpkin and yogurt, there is nothing dry about this bread. I know it has a lot of ingredients, but they are all things that are easy to keep around.
Pumpkin Bread
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (about half a can)
- 1 cup oat flour (or any whole grain flour)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup plain whole milk kefir or yogurt
- 1/4 cup any vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup almond or other nut flour (I love to keep almond flour around to use in baking)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (I actually used powdered jaggery – see post on jaggery)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
In one mixing bowl, mix up the sugar, eggs, kefir, vanilla, oil, and pumpkin. In another, blend the flours, baking soda, baking powder, seasoning and salt. (I confess that I actually did this successfully in one bowl by pushing the blended dry ingredients to the side while I whisked the wet ones. This type of extreme dirty dish prevention is a tradition among the women in my family.) Gently blend all of the ingredients together until smooth. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and pour the batter in, tapping it down gently to even out.
Variation: Use 3 mashed bananas instead of pumpkin and omit seasoning.
One drawback: If you give this bread to a mobile baby, you will be left with a trail of crumbs tracking every move they make.
