Today, I just needed a win. I decided to eat healthy this week, so this morning I put a pork roast in the crockpot and went to work all smug. Meal prep? I’m the epitome of health! I come home to the smell of a beautiful pork roast, take it out of the crockpot, and notice that I left that cute little plastic cooling pack on the pork. And it exploded. And it’s toxic. So, I guess I ruined dinner again.
That’s when I switched to baking, something I never screw up. I had an extra jar of pumpkin puree and my mom just bought me a tub of pumpkin pie butter (delish!), so I decided on making a pumpkin bread.
Now most people will tell you that baking is harder than cooking because it is an exact science – every measurement must be perfect and substitutions don’t always work out. For the most part, I agree with those people, but I also think that there are some substitutions you can make and still be confident that your pastry will turn out tasty. For instance, you can use vegetable oil, butter, coconut oil, and shortening interchangeably. You can substitute, add, or subtract any combination of spices (cinnamon, clove, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, nutmeg, etc). You can sub bread flour, whole wheat flour, or almond flour for white flour. You can’t substitute sugar for flour or baking soda for baking powder. So go ahead and play around with the recipe and make it your own!
Tips and Tricks
- Try using your favorite oil (vegetable, coconut, shortening) instead of butter in the bread mix if you would like to make this recipe your own. Butter is always my go-to oil
- Use a fork or a toothpick to check the bread – when the utensil comes out clean, you are done baking!
- If you don’t have cinnamon sugar, you can create your own by combining 2 parts cinnamon with 1 part white sugar
- This dough is a little thicker than a normal bread dough – don’t worry, the pumpkin will keep it moist
- Spraying the pan and dusting with flour before pouring in the dough will allow you to pop the bread right out of the pan cleanly
Ingredients for Bread
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup LIbby’s pure pumpkin
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Ingredients for Streusel Topping
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/3 cup butter (room temperature)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees
- Grease and sprinkle flour onto a bread loaf tin
- Beat sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl with hand mixer until well combined
- Add in eggs and pumpkin and beat until light and fluffy
- Add in flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg and beat until well combined
- Pour into pan, making sure the dough is distributed evenly
- In a separate bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon sugar with a fork or pastry cutter
- Sprinkle streusel topping over bread dough, covering the top of the bread
- Bake for 45-50 minutes
- Cool for 10 minutes (don’t eat it yet – resist the temptation!)
- Pop out of the pan, and enjoy!
I hope you are enjoying pumpkin season as much as I am! If you need a win too, try this pumpkin recipe and let me know how it turns out!
-R
Becca's Baking Creations 