Muffin Monday: Pumpkin Bread and Muffins

www.flickr.com, photo by rox sm

When I was in college, I spent about 8 months in Ketchikan, Alaska, living with Pam and Harry Gibson. They are such a sweet family, and I still miss them. Harry regularly made banana bread and pumpkin bread, and it was delicious! We would come home from church and gorge ourselves on it (or at least, I did. Perhaps the bread disappeared faster when I was living there!).

I still love making and eating pumpkin flavored goodies this time of year! There's just something invigorating about dropping temperatures, crisp mornings, colorful trees, and the smell of pumpkin baking. My recipe isn't Harry's, but it brings back fond memories of time spent at the Gibson's, and of Harry's amazing pumpkin bread!
There's nothing like cooking up your own pumpkin and using its puree for your pumpkin goodies, but sometimes we buy the canned pumpkin as well. If you do this, just check the ingredients. There should be nothing added--just pumpkin.


Pumpkin Breadadapted from 100 Days of Real Food

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup grapeseed or olive oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree

Directions:
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix all of the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Gradually, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine. Do not overmix. Pour into a greased loaf pan (I grease mine with olive oil) and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. If you'd rather make muffins, pour the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.