Pumpkin (& Banana) Bread

Recipe Marathon: Day 4

After half baking my first pumpkin bread and making this yummy bread pudding I wanted to try it again this weekend. I realized I didn’t have enough pumpkin puree and my ever resourceful husband suggested adding mashed banana along with pumpkin and it turned out pretty good. This is quite spicy bread (not hot spicy.. but spice spicy), from my previous experience I used only half of the ground cloves.

Recipe is from Wholegrains Baking by King Arthur Flour.
Ingredients:
White Whole wheat Flour – 2 cups
Baking powder – ½tsp
Baking Soda – 1tsp
Salt – ½tsp
Ground cinnamon – ½tsp
Ground Cloves – ½tsp (I used only ¼tsp)
Ground nutmeg – ¼tsp
Eggs – 3 large
Butter – ½cup (1 stick) at room temperature
Light brown sugar – 1cup
Granulated sugar – ¼ cup
Pumpkin puree – 1 cup (I had about 2/3 cup, I used a ripe banana for rest of pumpkin)
Vanilla extract – 1tsp

Chopped nuts – ¾ cup (I used walnuts) Raisins, Cranberries or chocolate chips – ¾ cup (I added raisins)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9”x5” loaf pan.
  
• Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a medium mixing bowl.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
  
• Add one egg at a time and mix until well incorporated. Add vanilla and pumpkin puree; mix thoroughly. Next add the flour mixture and mix until combined; make sure to scrape the bowl. Add the nuts & raisins and mix till well distributed.
  
• Pour into prepared pan; bake for an hour or until a toothpick inserted into the CENTER comes out clean.
  

I baked for about 63-65 minutes, the bread was baked perfectly around the edges but there was a little spot in the middle that took longer to bake. I was persistent this time and poked into the cake in different spots to make sure that it is baked. This makes for a great breakfast or a filling afternoon snack.