Ingredients
Units
- 1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose or cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, homemade or store-bought (see Notes, below)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use sunflower)
- 1 cup pumpkin or butternut squash puree, fresh or canned
- 3/4 cup walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF /180ºC.
- Butter or use baking spray on an 8x4-inch loaf pan. You can line it with a strip of parchment paper, covering the pan's bottom and two short sides. The two long sides will remain unlined but greased. This will help you remove the cake from the pan.
- Coarsely chop the walnuts and reserve.
- Beat eggs, sugar, and oil with an electric mixer for 1 minute.
- Add pumpkin puree and mix well.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Or have them measured and sift them directly over the pumpkin batter.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix only to incorporate.
- If adding the nuts to the batter, do so now and mix lightly.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and, if sprinkling the nuts on top, do so now.
- Bake for about 55-60 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. It can take a while to fully bake.
- Let cool completely on a wire rack, and remove from the pan with the help of the paper.
- Keep well wrapped at room temperature for up to 2 days, and then refrigerate.
Notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
- Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer(like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Pumpkin: if using homemade fresh pumpkin puree, it needs to be on the dry side and not have excess water. Drain it if that's the case.
- Spices: make pumpkin spice blend from scratch, or find your favorite blend and adjust this recipe. Or use store-bought pumpkin pie spice. You can use just one or two, like ground cinnamon and ginger.
- Pans: I like to make one large loaf, but you can gift smaller loaf pans or maybe eat one and freeze the others for another time. Use muffin tins to make pumpkin bread muffins.
- Storing: keep it covered in plastic wrap or under a cake dome at room temperature for a day or two, and then refrigerate or freeze (first plastic wrap and then aluminum foil or in an airtight container).
- Glaze: you can glaze it with a simple powdered sugar glaze. I love to use maple as the binding agent. Simply mix 3/4 cup of powdered sugar until smooth with 1/2 tablespoon of hot water and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Pour over the cooled loaf, let it drip down the sides and let it dry before cutting.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Quick Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/10
- Calories: 234
- Sugar: 20.4 g
- Sodium: 198.4 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.5 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Cholesterol: 18.6 mg