I love autumn. The leaves. The crystal clear air. The bright blue sky. The romance. The harvest. Sweaters and boots. Apples and pumpkin. And baking. Oh, baking. Maybe that’s what I love the most. The whole art of baking—spilling flour all over, cracking an egg into a bowl, adding sugar and spices, licking the spoon. That moment when you pull a warm, sweet smelling treat from the oven. Cutting into a cake and serving it to smiling guests (because doesn’t smile when they are handed dessert?) And then the eating. I’m not gonna lie, that might be the bestest part.

While organizing the freezer recently, I found some pumpkin and butternut squash puree from last year. Since our freezer is packed full with our garden harvest and we still need to add this year’s squash and pumpkin purees (as well as the meat from half a pig,) I figured I’d clear up a little space by baking some things. It was rough but it had to be done. *wink* One thing I made was this simple Pumpkin Bread. The original recipe came from a little vintage, country recipe pamphlet. I loved how simple it was. Sure, it’s fun to play around with exotic or unusual ingredients but, really, simple is often the best.

The original made quite a lot so I cut it in half and did a little tweaking. It calls for eggs but I made it with egg-replacer so that everyone in this house, including the vegan, could enjoy it. (I know that kinda takes away from the simple-ingredient-vibe but like I said, it’s not fun if you can’t share what you bake.)

I substituted apple sauce in for the oil. (We have a lot of sauce in the pantry and will be making more soon.) I think it makes the bread a little healthier… then you can afford to smear some butter on it.
(However, if you want to use oil, the measurement is the same as for the apple sauce.)

Pumpkin Bread
makes two small loaves

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour*
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pureed pumpkin* (canned or homemade—see note below)
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs (or an egg substitute equivalent to 2 eggs, such as Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1/4 cup water*

*The first time I made this, it turned out kind of gooey. I realized it was because I used homemade pumpkin puree instead of canned pumpkin, which is a lot less watery. If you use canned you’ll only need the flour amount given in the recipe but if you go with homemade puree that is liquid-y, use about 2 cups of flour instead and skip the water altogether. In the end, you want a normal cake batter consistency.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease two small loaf pans (mine were glass.)

Whenever I bake something vegan, the first thing I do is mix up my egg-replacer mixture first in small bowl and set aside until ready to use. If you are using eggs, skip this and move on the next step.

Which is to sift together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

Now in a mixer, blend up pumpkin, apple sauce and eggs (or egg replacer) until well incorporated.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients in small batches. Mix well.

Divide the batter into the two small loaf pans and bake at 350 F for about 45-60 minutes. (Stick a toothpick in after 45 minutes, if it comes out clean, it’s done, otherwise let it bake longer.)

You can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and serve as a pretty “cake” or cut slices and slather on some butter and eat as bread. (If you call it bread you can eat it for breakfast, right?)

Hope you enjoy it. Here are a couple documents for easy printing:

Printable recipe (with image.)
Printable recipe (text only.)

Up next are the Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins Sarah posted last year. I’ve been getting a lot of requests for them lately.

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