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“Often I find myself feeling incredibly helpless in the face of wanting to be incredibly helpful…enter food. Food is my love letter to the people in my life. It shows my heart, appreciation, concern, care, condolence, passion, exuberance, or simply that you live in my heart and thoughts.”
-Letter to my sister, Summer 2018
My sister-in-law was pregnant for the first time. Her son was due in December. She had just survived a very hot, uncomfortable summer and was rounding the base into autumn, or as many like to call it, Pumpkin Spice Latte season.
My sister-in-Law was doing her first pregnancy by the book, and that meant no coffee. And she lamented as such to me as yet another fragrant coffee cup floated by us. On my way home I started to wonder if there wasn’t something I could do? If she couldn’t drink Pumpkin Spice… surely she could eat it?
I searched the internet for different pumpkin recipes and settled on pumpkin bread. Easy to store, slice, and toast. Satisfying. And if I played my cards right, I could possibly make it into something providing enjoyable nutrition for a person that was undertaking the task of constructing a new human being.
The pumpkin bread was a success. It was my love letter to my Sister-in-Law. And, it has become something of a new baby tradition for me. It’s such a great gift to give to new parents who are running on very little sleep and can’t remember to eat breakfast much less think about how to make breakfast. This loaf freezes well, so you could bake multiple loaves and stock their freezer for a month. Just slice and toast. Voila! Breakfast! Or lunch. Or dinner. Or snack. Or midnight snack. Or…
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup oil coconut, avocado, or olive
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 1/4 cup orange juice or water
- 1 tsp vanilla
Dry Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour Bob's Red Mill
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ginger optional
- 1/8 tsp cloves optional
For the top:
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp turbinando sugar also known as Raw Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a loaf pan
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, salt, spices, and baking soda.
- In another bowl wisk together the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, honey, vanilla, and orange juice.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir to combine – making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to break up any pockets of flour.
- Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and top with seeds/nuts and the raw sugar.
- Bake about 50-60 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Turn out of the pan onto a wire rack and let cool.
- Enjoy!
Notes from my kitchen:
- As always, this recipe is fairly adaptable. If you don’t have whole wheat flour, use all purpose. If you don’t have coconut or avocado oil, use olive oil! If you don’t have honey, use pure maple syrup. If you don’t have orange juice use water, or pineapple juice! I’ve done all of these at one time or another.
- The amount of sugar you put in this bread depends on how sweet you want it. I tend to go with less. I’ve made this bread with coconut sugar and coconut oil and thoroughly enjoyed the results. But I’ve also done a 50/50 split and used coconut sugar and brown sugar. Play with it, see what works for you!
- In this most recent reiteration I added a few extra spices, to make up for the fact that my personal loaf cannot have cinnamon in it. What?! Yup, I developed a late in life allergy to cinnamon. So strange. But don’t cry for me… we all have our hardships to bear. I have included cinnamon in the recipe for all you lovely folks that don’t have a painful reaction to the popular holiday bark powder. But if you are like me and have been looking for a cinnamon replacement, look no further! Nutmeg, ginger, & cloves will have people fooled and asking you, “Are you sure you should be eating this? Aren’t you allergic to cinnamon?”