Whole Wheat Pumpkin (Quick) Bread

This weekend was such a relief. A welcome respite from the reality of the last couple of weeks. (It's been very real around here of late) September has been a strange month so it was wonderful to spend a Sunday in the kitchen again. It felt familiar and I've been craving something familiar. So after David and I ran in the Terry Fox Run (10K) this morning I went crazy in the kitchen - pumpkin bread, banana maple oatmeal cookies and pork roasted slowly with apples. It was very Fall-ish here today.


I was so pleased with how this pumpkin bread turned out:

It's made with whole wheat flour but I don't think you can tell. It's just as moist and tasty as pumpkin bread I've made in the past with regular ol' white flour. I found the recipe at Eating Clean Recipes and followed it exactly with the exception of omitting the nuts, since I want to include this in school lunchboxes. Mixing together the spices for this bread, which include the standard cinnamon, ginger, cloves mixture you find in all things pumpkin, I was struck by the fact that my mantle is still stuck in Summer mode. It smelled very Fall in the house but I haven't yet made the decorative leap to a new season. Add that to the list of things I should be able to get accomplished around the house this week.

This bread was so good eaten warm out of the oven I was tempted to just devour the whole loaf slathered in butter straight away. I controlled myself, thankfully, so will see if the flavour and texture hold up over the next week while I dole it out a slice at a time. I still have lots of pumpkin left over and have my eye on a few recipes to use it up. So far these pumpkin scones are at the top of my 'what to do with the rest of my canned pumpkin' list. (Yes, I have a list.)

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread from Eating Clean Recipes

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar or sucanat
3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
3 tablespoon canola or safflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of 8×4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves. Set aside.
In medium bowl mix egg, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, oil and vanilla until well blended. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour batter into pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf (16 slices)