If you’ve ever tried your hand at a pumpkin pie, you’ve probably purchased canned pumpkin at least once in your life. It essentially a can of orangey soft looking stuff that doesn’t appear to be too appetizing. When I finally got around to making some festive pumpkin bread this week, I decided to ditch the can of orange goo and opt for the real thing.
Luckily for me pumpkins are probably the easiest ingredient to find right about now. A grabbed a little guy from Ralph’s and got to work.
When I’ve made pumpkin bread with fresh pumpkin in the past, it always seemed to come out too wet. No, that’s not a typo. This bread was beyond moist, it was basically bread pudding. Delicious pumpkin bread pudding, but not quite the consistency that I was going for. This time around I used a quick microwave trick to get some of the excess water out of the pumpkin, and the result was absolutely PERFECT. Now I just have to find people to eat this huge thing with me.
Makes 1 loaf.
Ingredient List:
- 1 pumpkin, about medium sized
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Kitchen Tools: food processor, pie plate or bread pan, microwave, dish towel or mesh strainer
Prep Work:
Preheat oven to 325*F. Carefully cut open your pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and slice into strips so that you can easily cut the skin off. Once your pumpkin is skin free, chunk it up to save your food processor a whole lot of work. I just used the regular blade for this, but you could also use the grater attachment to create more uniform pieces. Coat the inside of your baking pan with non-stick spray.
Place shredded pumpkin in a microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 8 minutes. Use a mesh strainer or a dish towel to squeeze the water out of the microwaved pumpkin – this will keep your bread from getting soggy.
Cooking:
Blend all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, olive oil and vanilla extract. Pour these into the large bowl with your dry ingredients and stir to combine. Once everything is looking fairly uniform, add your shredded pumpkin into the mix. Make sure you fold it in well before pouring it carefully into the pan. Bake for 1 hr and 15 minutes, but check with a toothpick at an hour just in case your oven runs a bit hot. When a toothpick comes out clean, your Jack-o-Lantern bread is read to be devoured!
