Pumpkin Banilla Bread

Where has the time gone? My favorite time of year is fall, not just because of the cooler weather we get here in Texas, but for the fall food. Fall is a time to savor those cozy dinner recipes, warm casseroles, hearty soups, and delectable pumpkin desserts!

My favorite pumpkin bread recipe of all time is Eddie’s Autumn Pumpkin Bread with Pecan Streusel Topping. While it is an excellent pumpkin bread, the recipe here for Pumpkin Banilla bread is not too far behind. 🙂

My mom and I recently bought Jessica Merchant’s first cookbook titled “Seriously Delish“. Merchant, creator of the highly popular food blog that I love reading: How Sweet Eats, creates imaginative recipes that are both delicious and original. One of those recipes includes this innovative pumpkin banilla bread.

I never in my wildest dreams would have though to combine pumpkin bread with banana bread, but it winning combination and perfect for fall!

I have to give credit to my mom and sister to who baked this bread. I haven’t quite been in the mood to cook since being pregnant and all. 🙂

This bread is especially delicious if you add a dollop of Williams-Sonoma Pecan Pumpkin Butter. The grocery store brand just won’t cut it for me, so every October I’ll go and spurge at William-Sonoma.

If you’re a quick bread lover, you should love the ripe bananas, classic pumpkin spice, and premium vanilla bean paste in this tasty bread.

Enjoy!

pumpkin banilla bread

Pumpkin Banilla Bread

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Source: Simply Delish

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup canned light coconut milk
4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 Tbsp. molasses
2 Tbsp. vanilla bean paste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 5 x 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the pumpkin puree and bananas and mix until combined. Stir in the coconut milk, butter, molasses, and vanilla bean paste. Mix until the ingredients come together.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until the top of the bread is golden brown and set, 85 to 90 minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven and let cool for 1 hour. Remove the bread from the loaf pan and allow to cool on a cutting board before slicing.

Eddie’s Autumn Pumpkin Bread with Pecan Streusel Topping

Tis the season for some pumpkin bread! Halloween is just around the corner, and today I pulled out my fall wreath, pumpkins and gourds to decorate. I also bought myself some candy corn, my favorite candy of all time.

My mom made this recipe for pumpkin bread last weekend and gave me a half of a loaf to enjoy. By Wednesday, I had finished it, and was already craving more. As I said earlier, decorating put me in a festive mood, so I decided to make this pumpkin bread recipe again. Instead of making two 9 x 5-inch loaves, I baked the bread into 4 mini loaves, and had leftover batter to make 8 standard-size muffins. (This recipe makes a lot of bread, so I recommend either halving the recipe, making mini loaves or muffins to pass out to family and/or friends, or freezing the extras.

As far as taste, this is my favorite pumpkin bread recipe. I think this homemade version tastes better than Central Market’s and Williams-Sonoma’s pumpkin bread, which are both very good. Our version is extremely moist (it does not dry out), has 4 flavorful spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, and the toasted pecans add a nice crunch. The recipe calls for a pecan streusel topping, but to save calories, we omitted it. I encourage you to try the streusel topping and let me know what you think. It sounds delicious!

I know that pumpkin is very nutritious for you, but I’m not sure I’d call this bread “healthy”. Our pumpkin bread has 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of vegetable oil (however, the recipe makes 2 loaves, which probably serves 32). In addition, the streusel topping contains 1/2 a stick of butter.

Quick breads are so easy to make and are one of my favorite mid-morning or late-afternoon snacks. Don’t forget to spread a large dollop of pumpkin butter on your pumpkin bread. A perfect complement, and unlike the name, this “butter” has 0 grams of fat and is only 35 calories per serving! Much healthier than adding cream cheese icing to the top…I’ll save the icing for cupcakes instead!

Don’t forget to toast the pecans, they taste ten times better, are more aromatic, and are crunchier. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Eddie’s Autumn Pumpkin Bread with Pecan Steusel Topping

Ingredients
BREAD
1-1/2 cups toasted pecan pieces (reserve 1/2 cup for topping)
1 cup vegetable oil, such as canola or safflower
3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin
1 cup water
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

TOPPING
1/2 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces (above)

Directions
TO MAKE THE BREAD:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast them in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic. Reserve 1/2 cup of the toasted pecans for the topping.
2. Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans or 36 standard-size muffin cups with butter or cooking spray.
3. Whisk the oil and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, pumpkin and water and whisk until combined. Stir in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Gently stir in 1 cup of the pecan pieces. Pour half of the batter into each loaf pan. For muffins, fill the muffin pans almost to the top with batter.

TO MAKE THE TOPPING:
4. Stir the sugar, butter, cinnamon, and the reserved 1/2 cup of pecan pieces in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the topping liberally over the loaves or the muffins before baking.

5. Bake the loaves for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Bake the muffins 30 to 35 minutes.

***Tip: Pumpkin is a nutritional powerhouse on its own, but if you want to increase the health quotient here, substitute a cup of whole wheat pastry flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose flour.

Yield: two 9 x 5-inch loaves or 36 standard-size muffins
The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country’s Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe” by Rebecca Rather

Great Pumpkin Bread

I have yet to make a pumpkin bread recipe on my own, but I thought I would share with you a delicious and homemade pumpkin bread recipe that a wonderful parent made for me at my school. The recipe is called “Great Pumpkin Bread”, and comes out of the Waco Junior League Cookbook. (Junior League Cookbooks always have great recipes!)

My student’s parent says that “this is delicious thinly sliced and spread with a mixture of cream cheese and orange or pineapple marmalade”. She likes it best with strawberry cream cheese. I did not have cream cheese, and since I love Stonewall Kitchen’s Maple Pumpkin Butter, that is what I put on my pumpkin bread!

Great Pumpkin Bread

Yield: 2 (9×5-inch) loaves

Ingredients

1 cups plus 2 tbsp oil
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp each of cloves, ginger, and nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (9 x 5) inch loaf pans.
Blend together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Set aside.
Mix dry ingredients together and add to mixture.
Add pumpkin and pecans and mix well.
Bake for approximately 1 hour.

Notes

Recipe from: Waco Jr. League Cookbook