Recipe of the Week: Whole-Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Claire Weiss, Staff Writer|November 4, 2013

Last Thursday, Halloween had us all trick-or-treating, stuffing our faces with candy, and admiring the numerous carved pumpkins set on doorsteps. Pumpkins are one of my favorite parts of Halloween, not to mention one of my all-time favorite flavor of fall, enhancing breads, cakes, pies, and coffee drinks and lending its seeds to roasting.

To celebrate the Halloween season this week, I wanted to make a festive pumpkin bread recipe. I found this fairly healthy recipe on a new website called 100 Days of Real Food, and it tasted great! The moist, sweet pumpkin bread delivered a perfect combination of pumpkin and spices like nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.

One healthy substitution in this recipe is the use of whole wheat versus white flour. Whole-wheat flour provides nutritious dietary fiber, antioxidants, and Vitamin B, unlike white flour. Also, the recipe replaces granulated sugar with honey, which is unprocessed, healthy, and delicious.

I hope you enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt)
  3. Make a small hole in the center of the dry mixture and pour the eggs, oil, honey, and vanilla into the hole. Stir together thoroughly with a fork, until all ingredients are blended. Do not over-mix.
  4. Generously grease a large loaf pan to make bread or line a muffin pan with paper liners to make muffins. Pour in the batter.
  5. Bake a loaf for approximately 30-40 minutes and bake muffins for 18-22 minutes. If a knife or toothpick inserted into the batter comes out clean, it is done.

Serving Size: Either one muffin or one slice of bread

Yield: Serves 10-12 (10-12 muffins or slices of bread)

My Changes:

  • Instead of baking muffins or a loaf, I baked the bread in a Pyrex square pan, so they were more like pumpkin bread brownies. They took about 25 minutes to bake.
  • I added a whole teaspoon of vanilla instead of just ½ because I love the flavor of vanilla. If you are not a fan of the taste, just keep it at 1/2 teaspoon.
  • This recipe was pretty easy to make, but allow at least 25 minutes to baking time.