Wholesome Pumpkin Bread

Here’s a wholesome spin on a classic pumpkin bread recipe, using ancient spelt flour and just enough maple syrup to make it sweet without sending your blood sugar through the roof. I served it for brunch last Sunday and got two thumbs up from our resident sweet tooth, but if you want to add another 1/4 cup of maple syrup, go for it - you’ll just need to take out the orange juice, which I used as a natural sweetener and to keep the bread from becoming too dense. If you don’t have orange juice, you can substitute it for your choice of milk.

There are all sorts of other ways to modify this recipe, if needed. For example, if you’re in a pinch and don’t have spelt flour in your cupboards, you can use all-purpose flour as a substitute. I have a soft spot for spelt since it’s packed with fibre, protein, and vitamins AND is lower in gluten and easier to digest than wheat flour. If you’re gluten-intolerant, you can replace the spelt with Bob’s Red Mill’s 1:1 gluten-free flour or whatever gluten-free flour you use for baking. If you decide to substitute a different kind of flour, just be sure to use a total of 1 1/2 cups and omit both the light spelt and whole grain spelt flours.

As far as pumpkin is concerned, I used canned pumpkin puree for convenience, but feel free to use homemade if you’ve got the time to make it. For any vegans who have read this far, despite seeing eggs in the recipe, you can substitute them for 2 flax eggs instead.

I served a plain loaf last weekend, but you could also add 1/4 cup of walnuts or dark chocolate chips if you want to jazz things up a bit. Like I said, this recipe is so versatile, anyone could enjoy it!

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 cup light spelt flour

1/2 cup whole grain spelt four

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp orange zest

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin purée

1/3 cup coconut oil or butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup walnuts or dark chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a standard (8.5 x 4.5-inch) loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.

2.In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt, and orange zest.

3.In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, oil, orange juice, maple syrup, and vanilla.

4.Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just incorporated.

5.Pour batter into prepared pans.

6.Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7.Let cool 15-20 minutes in pan; then transfer to a cooling rack and continue cooling before serving. Enjoy!