Pumpkin pie bread.

The day before yesterday, I made what were supposed to be "pumpkin pie pop tarts" (here's the recipe) -- but I only made a few that were pop tart sized. I cut down the dough and turned it into pumpkin pie pop tart ravioli. They were delicious, but I had 1/2 cup of pumpkin filling mixture left over! And you know I never throw anything away. So I tucked it into the fridge, and started thinking about what to do with it. Sure, I could make more ravioli -- but they're full of butter, and I try to only make one thing that will jump my family's cholesterol each week.



My almost-immediate thought was banana bread, but with pumpkin. And hopefully more of a molasses/caramel flavor, to match the pumpkin and really bring out its flavor and spices. But I didn't want to add molasses, and I didn't want to use plain brown sugar either -- so I went with demerara sugar, which is what I stir into my coffee. It's granulated like white sugar, but a little more unrefined like muscovado sugar. (Brown sugar is just as refined as white sugar, but it has molasses/moisture added back into it. I really didn't want that extra moisture, or such a heavy molasses flavor.) If you have it to hand, you can use that "Sugar in the Raw" stuff instead. Or, of course, just a whole cup of white sugar. Whatever works for you.

(If you only have white sugar, but you still want that molasses-y flavor, add up to two tablespoons of molasses to the pumpkin while it's over the heat. If you don't plan to heat the pumpkin, add the molasses to the butter and sugar while you're creaming it.)

Here's my recipe:

1-1/3 c pumpkin puree
2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground clove
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

2 oz unsalted butter (1/4 cup, 1/2 stick) - room temp/soft
1 egg
1/2 c demerara sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 - 1/3 c milk (what you add depends on your climate; start with 1/4 c and go up from there if the mixture is too dry)

1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 c AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Mix the pumpkin with the spices. You can heat this up for a few minutes, until the air smells strongly of the spices. If you don't heat it up, that's okay, too.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Add the pumpkin-spice mixture and the milk, and stir it all together. A whisk is fun here, but a wooden spoon works okay too. If your pumpkin mixture is super hot, add it a little at a time so that you don't accidentally cook the egg.

Now add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir it all together. It should be a thick batter, like muffins or pancakes. Put into a greased loaf pan. I would never discourage you from using butter for this, but I used spray oil in my Pyrex loaf pan and it worked like a charm.

Bake for about an hour on a rack in the middle of the oven. A knife stuck into the center should come out clean. (Use a cake tester if you want, but I never have any to hand, whereas I always have a butter knife!)

Honestly, I had thought about eating this bread with a maple glaze, just like the "pop tarts" I made the other day -- 1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of cream, and enough milk to thin it out to a spreadable consistency. For me that was another 2 tablespoons, but it might be more or less for you.



The thing is, though... One slice of this bread without the maple glaze completely changed my mind. Wowzers. It's light, moist, with a subtle spicy pumpkin pie flavor that is exactly what I wanted. It doesn't need anything, except maybe a strong cup of black coffee (or a few handfuls of pumpkin seeds stirred in before baking!).

Om nom nom nom.