Pumpkin Bread

It's Halloween season ..which means Pumpkin !!!!! I just could not resist a pumpkin recipe. What could be better than a pumpkin bread. I searched for a few recipes and finally decided on this one from Allrecipe. This is a big recipe. I halved the recipe and made some modifications as well.

I had never have a pumpkin bread... So it was an adventure trying out this recipe.

Ingredients ( This is the half recipe)
1/2 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
220g white sugar ( I was horrified to find that I have only 120g of sugar at home. So I used brown sugar- 120g of white sugar and about 120g of brown sugar)
220g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon ( I added more)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg ( I added more)
1/4teaspoon ground cloves ( I omitted this as I do not have them at home)
1/9 teaspoon ground ginger (I omitted this as I do not have them at home)

100g of chopped walnut - Not in the recipe. But I added in for some crunch.

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5x3 loaf pan

2.In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.

5. Pour into the prepared pans.

6. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


The bread is moist and flavorful . I need to buy a pumpkin bread from Starbucks and do a blind test against mine :)

~bel~

Chocolate Banana Bread

I wanted to bake something with banana this week. It does not took me long to decide on this recipe from Joyof baking.

I am not a fan of chocolate. But the combination of chocolate, banana and chocolate chips is a real winner. The bread is moist and flavourful. I can't wait to bake this again

Ingredients

1/2 cup (55 grams) toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
1 3/4 cups (230 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (30 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (85 grams) white or dark chocolate chips
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe bananas (approximately 1 pound or 454 grams), mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Direction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

2. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan.

3. Lightly toast the walnuts. Let cool and then chop coarsely.

4. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

5. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.

6. Lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky.

7. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Scrape batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top of the bread with coarse brown sugar (optional- I omitted this).

8. Bake until bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes.

~bel~