Pumpkin Loaf with Currants and Pumpkin Seeds
For the last two weeks, I have been trying to share with you a recipe for Pumpkin Loaf. Seemed easy — yet, it took three attempts to pull it off.
The first loaf, I just used my perfect Banana Bread recipe and doctored it up a bit, replacing the banana with pumpkin and adding pumpkin pie spice for flavor. While edible, and we certainly had no trouble polishing it off, it wasn’t quite right. Wrong texture, and the spice you would expect from pumpkin pie was not prominent enough.
The second version, I simplified the process so much that I ended up with a dense, yet weirdly moist and gummy loaf — we did not eat that one.
So, on to the third iteration. Thankfully it was perfect! I learned a few things too. For instance, canned pumpkin has a kind of strange texture, so add some applesauce to compensate, throw in a bunch of nuts and seeds to make it interesting, use cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and ground cloves instead of store-bought pumpkin pie spice, and finally throw a dusting of sugar on top just before popping it into the oven, for a nice sweet crisp crust.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature, or egg replacer or flax eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, unsalted
- 1/4 cup currants
- 2 tablespoons sugar for dusting
- A handful of pumpkin seeds and currants for sprinkling on top
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease well.
In a large bowl or stand mixer add pumpkin, applesauce, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cooled butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix on medium speed until well incorporated.
Add flours, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Again, mix until combined.
Add pumpkin seeds and currants, mix one last time until blended.
Spread into loaf pan, smooth over top and sprinkle with sugar, seeds and currants.
Bake 50-60 minutes, or until well browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
https://pamelasglutenfreerecipes.com/gluten-free/pumpkin-loaf-with-currants-and-pepitas/