Pumpkin bread

Unlike Halloween Thanksgiving still isn’t a thing in the UK. I still like to observe it, and each year we have a Thanksgiving meal with the same family friends.

I’m Canadian and they have American roots, so we diplomatically set a date between the start of October and end of November. We take turns hosting, and the travelling family brings the pies.

Tinned pumpkin still isn’t readily available in the UK, and on several occasions I’ve made my own purée from squash or sweet potato before baking the pumpkin pie.

Now that the Internet era upon us, I can order pumpkin purée online. This year I picked up an extra tin so I could  make pumpkin bread.

I clipped this pumpkin bread recipe from a Canadian magazine decades ago, and have made it many times. It always made two loaves back home, but when I poured half the batter into my loaf tin, it didn’t look like enough.

Perhaps my British loaf tins are that bit bigger than the ones I had in Canada. In any event, I tipped the rest of batter into the one tin. It was fuller than I’d normally make it, reaching almost to the rim.

I was worried the batter might overflow, but it wasn’t an issue. I left my pumpkin bread in the oven for fifteen minutes longer than the specified one hour to allow it to bake fully, keeping an eye on it to ensure the top didn’t burn.

Pumpkin bread
(makes 1 large loaf)

• 425g (15oz) tin unsweetened pumpkin purée
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• extra sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 1-lb loaf tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin purée, caster sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
5. Sprinkle the top of the batter with extra sugar and cinnamon.
6. Bake for about 75 minutes, or until the loaf is firm, and a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Tags: dairy-free, pumpkin loaf, pumpkin purée, vegetarian