Pandemic Pumpkin Bread

This is a typical fall/winter recipe, but when you are locked down, you have both time and the desire for some really nice food for distraction. It is a from scratch recipe that has quite a few ingredients, but its actually pretty simple. With a prep time of about 20 minutes, and a bake time of about an hour, with little effort you can have a huge loaf of Pumpkin Bread that will fill your families right up. Please comment below on what you are eating and cooking, as we are all doing more of that than we ever have!

Dry Ingredients:

1 ¾ cup Flour. Use a Spelt flour or the like for a health boost.

½ cup Sugar. Use Demera cane sugar if you can.

1/3 cup Brown Sugar.

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder.

Dash of baking soda. I don’t know why.

½ teaspoon salt.

4 teaspoons spice mix. Make 2/3 of the mix ground cinnamon, and the rest allspice or nutmeg with a touch of cloves. The cinnamon is the key here, and I usually just add allspice. Allspice is the hidden key to life.

¼ cup chopped walnuts. Optional but damn nice.

1 nice handful of raisins. Optional. Don’t use the old pellets in your pantry. Fresh ones only or skip it, please!!

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup pureed pumpkin. Canned is good. You can also substitute banana, or do a mix of the two. You can also bake an acorn squash and use it.

½ cup Almond milk. Yup, keep it healthy here.

4 teaspoons cooking oil. I use either light olive which is filtered, or rice bran. No flavored oils.

1 teaspoon lemon juice.

1+ teaspoons maple syrup.

2 teaspoons vanilla. Real vanilla and real maple syrup are the secret sauce here.

Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combine. If you don’t you are going to have a tough time mixing the pumpkin and the flour. Put in a standard large loaf pan that has been oiled and floured.

Bake at 365 degrees for 50 minutes. The top should be nicely brown. When you check with a toothpick, note it is not a cake and may come out with a little residual. As long as its not soupy, its okay.