Pumpkin Bread

My sister came up to visit for a week over Easter.  It was lovely having her over, and the kids adored her.

While we were out touring the Northern Grampians (it got cooked by the recent fires), we drove past a farm that was selling pumpkins on side of the road.

Of course, we had to stop, and we had to buy a pumpkin.  The only problem was I only had a $10 note and no coins.  Pumpkins were selling for $2 each (bargain).

We ended up deciding to just buy $10 worth of pumpkins.

All up we bought 3 pumpkins.  Two $4 pumpkins, and one $2 pumpkin. The smaller pumpkin was gifted to my mother-in-law, who loved it.

The pumpkin featured in this image is the $4 pumpkin and would easily be 4kg | 9lbs.  As you can see it’s huge! It covers my entire cutting board. Let me tell you it was very awkward to cut because it was so large, my chopping knife kept getting stuck.

With this particular pumpkin, I used 1/3 of it to cook a double batch of (paleo) pumpkin soup.

Another 1/3 I steamed and made pumpkin purée.  It ended up being about 2 liters worth of purée. Which I have frozen and will use in tomato sauces along with tomato paste. (It’s also a great way of sneaking in veggies for the kids.)

And the last 1/3 I kept in the fridge to use throughout the week.

I decided that since I had so much pumpkin purée I would make pumpkin bread.

I’ve never made pumpkin bread before.  I’ve had it, just never made it myself.  So I found this recipe I had in one of my bread books on the bookshelf and gave it a go.  Needless to say, it didn’t even last 2 days.  It was just divine. This bread is soft and dense and makes a great complement to a hot drink, like chia, coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate.

Since I haven’t shared a recipe in a while.  I thought I would share this one with you.

Pumpkin Bread

Recipe Type: Cake, Bread
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 70 mins
Total time: 1h 35m
Serves: 12-14

Ingredients

• 225g / 8oz Plain Flour or Self-Raising Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking Powder (use only if using Plain Flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice or ground mixed spice
• 115g / 4oz butter, softened
• 175g / 6oz brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 225g / 8oz pumpkin purée

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°c/325°f / gas mark 3.
2. Grease or line a loaf tin with baking paper and set aside
3. Sift the flour, salt, and spice in a bowl and set aside.
4. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Gradually add the beaten eggs.
6. Stir in the pumpkin purée.
7. Once the wet ingredients are mixed, fold them into the flour mixture.
8. Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and level the surface.
9. Bake for 70 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
10. Once cool, slice & serve with butter