Pumpkin Bread

As you might have already guessed it’s Pumpkin Week and we have been experimenting with all kinds of Pumpkin recipes. Pumpkin Bread is quite big in the USA but unfortunately in Switzerland it’s quite hard to find in cafes and restaurants. The good news is that Pumpkin Bread is super easy to make and all the ingredients can be found in your local supermarket.

Don’t think of Pumpkin Bread as something savory because it’s more of a dessert and perfect for an afternoon snack with coffee or when you need a sweet pick-me-up but the great thing is also that it’s not too sweet. I also really like it with some butter or cream cheese and if you want to go completely crazy you can also add honey.

For this Pumpkin Bread we decided to add some sunflower seeds but these are totally optional and you can experiment as much as you like, adding pumpkin seeds, walnuts or even cashews.

We really hope you enjoy this recipe, and, if it’s something totally new for you we hope you like the taste of this moist delicious bread.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cooking Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients for one loaf:

• All-purpose flour - 300 gr

• Eggs - 2

• Pumpkin Purée - 420 gr

• Baking Powder - 1 bag (15 gr)

• Baking Soda - 1/2 tea spoon

• Salt - 2 Tbs

• Ground Cinnamon - 2 tea spoons

• Ground Nutmeg - 1 teaspoon

• Cloves - 2 (grind 2 of them and add them in)

• Sunflower seeds - 50 gr (this is optional and the bread is also fantastic without)

• Brown Sugar - 250 gr

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 250 ml

Preparation:

1. We start preparing the Pumpkin Bread by preheating the oven to 180°C.

2. Take a rectangular baking mold and coat it with butter on all sides (we do this so that the cake doesn’t stick to the mold once it’s cooked).

3. Take a bowl and mix the eggs, the pumpkin purée and the sugar together. Then add the olive oil and keep mixing until you get a homogenous mixture.

4. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder and baking soda.

5. Take the “dry” ingredients you just mixed together and slowly add them to the “wet” ingredients we mixed before slowly. Keep mixing and adding until you have a nice mixture with no lumps.

6. Now is the moment to add in your sunflower seeds or any other seeds you with to add (pumpkin seeds, walnuts etc.)

7. Pour the batter into the baking mold and flatten the top with a knife or spatula, you can press a bit to make sure that the mixture is compact.

8. Bake for 80 minutes at which point you can take a knife and do the famous knife test (when you poke the bread and see if the knife comes out mostly dry but a little bit moist.. this is the perfect cooking point). If the knife still comes out too wet leave the bread for another 5/10 minutes. Keep testing to make sure it doesn’t overcook.

9. Let the bread rest for at least 20 Min once it’s out of the oven.

This Pumpkin Bread can be kept for 4 days - cover it with foil or with a kitchen towel so that it doesn’t become hard and keep at room temperature.