Pumpkin week continues with a wonderful recipe for pumpkin bread. When you google “best pumpkin bread recipes” you will see 5-star rated recipes that are loaded with oil, butter, eggs, white flour and white sugar. These recipes may get 5 stars because they taste so good, but I would give them only 1 star for nutritional value. And it’s so unnecessary. This vegan recipe contains only 1/3 cup oil, no butter, no eggs, no white sugar and a very small amount of white flour, and the combination of ginger, molasses and orange zest give this bread a depth of flavor that many pumpkin breads are lacking. It’s very moist and satisfying. And I feel like I’m doing myself a favor when I go for that second piece.
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour (or you can use 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¾ cup brown or turbinado sugar
- 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 6 Tbsp warm water
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup almond milk
- 1 heaping cup canned pumpkin
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- 1 Tbsp orange zest (one orange is all you need)
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- Combine ground flaxseeds with warm water and let sit for about 10 minutes.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours through brown sugar) in a large bowl.
- Whisk together the remaining wet ingredients (oil through molasses) then add the orange zest and the flax-water mixture. Mix well, then gently fold into the flour mixture.
- Stir just until all traces of flour disappear, then fold in walnuts. Spread evenly in the pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and let cool completely.
Doctor, doctor, give me the news:
Ayurveda says cinnamon is medicine for yous!
I can’t keep this pumpkin bread in the house.
Is it the hungry teenagers, or perhaps we have a mouse?