I am pumpkin obsessed! I have created numerous pumpkin recipes over the years but never managed to add them to my blog simply due to lack of images. Somehow these creations got wiped out in seconds thanks to the family (I'm equally guilty of taste checking until there's nothing left but crumbs). So finally here's my long overdue contribution to my blog with it's first ever pumpkin recipe.
I confess to be a veggie lover and you'll notice that the majority of my posts are veggies based. Pumpkin is such a versatile veggie that more often than not we make loads of sweet treats with it like pancakes, cake pops, loaf bread and even pumpkin spice latte! Eating pumpkin is good for the heart. The fiber, potassium and vitamin C content in pumpkin all support heart health. Consuming enough potassium may be almost as important as decreasing sodium intake for the treatment of hypertension or high blood pressure.
I prefer to use fresh pumpkin and never the canned version and I am loving the variety of organic pumpkin's and squashes now available
in the farmer's markets and supermarkets too. It's pretty easy to whip up your own batch of pumpkin puree and freeze it, trust me it lasts quite long in the freezer and tastes just as good if not better than the canned version. All you gotta do it roast fresh pumpkin (drizzle with honey for an extra special taste) in your oven until its golden in colour. Mash it well and it's ready to use. I also have a lazy mama hack especially during breakfast time when I need to quickly whip up a batch of pancakes or waffles. Just peel the fresh pumpkin and cube them into bite sized pieces and then you either steam this or microwave it sprinkled with some water to ensure it isn't too dry once done, blend or mash and it's ready to use. The roasted version of pumpkin puree has a much richer taste as it retains all it's flavors while roasting.
Now onto the recipe, please do share your own creations of this with the hashtag #saffronbowl
Ingredients
1.5 cups gluten free self raising flour
1 and 3/4 tsp Pumpkin Spice Mix
3/4 tsp Himalayan Salt
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (or any plant based/ dairy free milk)
1/2 cup melted butter (or vegetable oil)
3/4 cup raw unprocessed sugar (it's a light brown colour)
2 tbsp date syrup (or substitute with honey/ maple syrup/ agave nectar)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Toppings -Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Chia seeds, chopped up pistachios etc.
Preheat the oven to 180° and grease a loaf pan and swirl around a tablespoon of glutenfree flour to the pan. Roll it around to completely cover it the baking pan with the GF Flour. This ensures easy removal of you Pumpkin loaf.
Sieve together the GF flour, pumpkin spice mix and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients- pumpkin puree, eggs, butter, raw sugar, date syrup, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Gently fold in the dry ingredients bit by bit until well incorporated. Make sure that if you are manually whisking this, it has to be in one direction. Use a spatula and scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth out the surface and tap it on your counter to ensure no bubbles remain and sprinkle it with your choice of topping evenly.
Bake this for 40 - 50 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test. Let the bread cool briefly in the loaf pan and then slice it up and serve it warm. This is perfect as a breakfast idea or even great for the kids lunchbox. Here's a muffin version of the same loaf that I sent in my kids lunchbox. The muffins bake much faster, so make sure you set the timer for 25 minutes.
The colour of your loaf/muffins will vary, depending on the kind of sweetener you use, since mine has date syrup, the end result has a beautiful caramel brown hue. Honey will give it a lighter colour. This isn't an overly sweet creation like cake, it's mildly sweet, but you can always drizzle some honey over it for those who like it extra sweet.
Tip- Make your own Pumpkin spice mix by mixing together 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp Nutmeg, 1/4 tsp clove, 1/2 tsp dry ginger (all of the should be finely ground powders). If you don't have a glutenfree self raising flour, add 1/2 tsp each baking powder and baking soda to the dry mix while sieving.
For those of you don't have allergies or can't source out glutenfree flour, you can substitute with 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of ground oats flour and follow the same method of dry mixing all the ingredients.