Happy Fall and Pumpkin Bread

Just in case the social media world hasn’t proclaimed this to you yet, today is the first day of fall and every wonderful and glorious thing that associates itself with this season is about emerge once again. And also, in case you have secluded yourself to a non-mediated hidey hole for the last three weeks, the season of pumpkin-flavored things has arrived fashionably early. No surprises there.

Now, as cliché as I may seem in posting a right-on-time recipe for pumpkin bread, a classic fall favorite, I am not ashamed. The truth is, on a scale of one to ten, my obsession for the flavor of that sweet and earthy fall pumpkin is an eleven. And as much as I would like to write many more paragraphs on the wonders of the flavor of pure fresh pumpkin, I think that between previous posts on this blog, thousands of boards on pinterest, and the rest of the world wide web, there is quite enough of that. For now, I will keep my pumpkin affections to myself. So call me hipster, call me a product of mediated consumerism, call me whatever you’d like, but don’t disclaim my judgment of taste because if you had a slice of this light yet oh-so-moist pumpkin bread, you’d be over here swooning right along with me.

So without further ado I invite you to make this bread. It is subtly spiced, touched with whole wheat, lightly kissed by maple syrup, and all topped off with a walnut crust. Though its superiority may get lost amongst other wild and outrageous pumpkin-y things, lattes, cake pops, oatmeal, and such, its okay. Everyone else can have all of that. I’m really just here for the pumpkin.

Pumpkin bread
adapted from Simply Recipes
makes one loaf

A few notes on the recipe:

I used a partial amount of spelt. If you don’t have it, use whole wheat instead. Or just make everything all-purpose if that’s all you have. I also used mostly coconut oil with a bit of olive oil. The same rule applies here; if you only have canola or vegetable oil, just substitute with that. Just make sure that your total oil amount is ½ cup. If your spice cabinet is unfortunately bare except for the poor lonely container of pumpkin pie spice collecting dust in the corner, feel free to replace all the spices in the recipe with just a teaspoon of this. And finally, use whatever nut you would like for the top. I’d imagine pecans would be lovely. Experiment with add-ins too. Maybe golden raisins…or dark chocolate chunks.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground clove
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs coconut oil, heated until liquid
2 Tbs olive oil
2 eggs
2 Tbs water
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 Tbs brown sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9x5x3 loaf pan by greasing the inside well with butter or oil.

In one large bowl, sift together the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, and all of the spices. In another large bowl, add the pumpkin, maple syrup, oils, eggs, and water and whisk to combine until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and use a spatula to fold them together until just combined.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle the walnuts and the brown sugar overtop. Use your hand to lightly press the walnuts halfway into the batter. Bake for 50 minutes or until nicely browed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then invert onto a rack to finish cooling completely.