Pumpkin Pecan Bread: Less Fat, More Pumpkin

To me, pumpkin bread is the ultimate in comfort food. But, even when I feel the need for comfort, I avoid making it in summer because to me pumpkins mean autumn--even if here in Southern California, temperatures are registering in the 90's. Whatever the thermometer reading, I felt justified in making pumpkin bread this week.

The recipe I chose is adapted from a reduced-fat and calorie pumpkin pecan bread I found at MyRecipes. Here's my version, with nutritional information and suggested variations at the bottom. I used homemade pumpkin puree, which is very simple to make and I think enhanced the bread's flavor and texture. You can read about how I did it elsewhere on my blog. If you're pressed for time (and who isn't?), use the canned variety. It will be great either way!

Pumpkin Bread With Toasted Pecans

(Two 9x5-inch loaves)

Ingredients

2 cups white all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat)

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup egg whites (from about 4 large eggs, or use egg substitute)

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

2/3 cup water (or liquid from steamed pumpkin)

15 ounces of pumpkin (2 cups fresh pulp minus 1 ounce--or one 15-ounce can)

1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two 9x5-inch loaf pans with oil.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, soda, salt and spices. Whisk the dry ingredients until well-combined.

Place the sugars, oil, egg whites (or substitute) and buttermilk in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer (or by hand) at medium speed until well blended. Add the pumpkin and water, beating at low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly at low speed, making sure that all ingredients are incorporated but not over-mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Sprinkle toasted pecans on top.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour, checking toward the end to make sure the loaves aren't browning too quickly. If they are, place some foil loosely on top. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean.

 After Words

Each loaf makes about 12 generous slices. To reduce the calories even further, cut them in half! The bread keeps for 2 or 3 days at room temperature and freezes well (for about a month) when wrapped tightly in a double thickness of saran, then placed inside a deflated plastic bag. Warmed in the microwave for a few seconds, it tastes as if it just popped out of the oven!

Nutritional Info (1 3/4" slice)

Calories: 183

Fat: 6 grams

Carbs: 31 grams

Fiber: 2 grams

Protein: 5 grams

Weight Watchers points: 5

Variations & Enhancements

1. Mix toasted, chopped pecans with 2-3 additional tablespoons of brown sugar and about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of the loaves before baking.

2. Allergic to nuts? Substitute lightly toasted rolled oats for above.

3. Fold in 1/2 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chopped dried apricots--or 1/4 cup chopped candied ginger--just before pouring the batter into the loaf pans.

4. Use chopped walnuts or mixed nuts instead of the pecans. Incorporate the nuts in the batter, then sprinkle a few more on top.

5. Add the grated zest of an orange to the wet ingredients, substituting orange juice (preferably fresh) for the water.

6. Spread the bread with cream cheese, pumpkin butter--or both--for a decadent treat.

7. Serve heated with a scoop of pumpkin or vanilla ice cream for dessert.

DIY Pumpkin Puree: Instead of Libby's

There's something about pumpkins. When the bright orange globes start sprouting on doorsteps around town, you know that fall is in full swing, with Halloween and Thanksgiving sure to arrive before you can say, "gobble, gobble!"

When my son was small, the season usually meant a trip to a pumpkin patch to pick out perfect candidates to carve into jack-o-lanterns with face-splitting grins. Sometimes a slight detour took us to a haunted house--and once to a cornstalk maze where a scary guy with a chainsaw tore after us (supposedly there was no chain in the saw so it couldn't actually do any real damage--or so my husband assured me while laughing hysterically).

No chainsaws in this North Carolina corn maze
 Photo credit: hallfamilyfarm.com

One thing I never did with those pumpkins was to actually cook them. I recall trying it once and making a pumpkin pie that was stringy--something a pumpkin pie should never be. It was a lot easier to purchase a can of Libby's and make the recipe on the back.

Lately, I've been in DIY mode--probably something to do with starting this blog. I figure I can experiment with anything edible, and, if it doesn't turn out, I'll just write about it; my readers will presumably be entertained and learn what not to do--for instance, how not to make a stringy pumpkin pie (yeah, just open a can!).

Inveterate googler that I am, I searched online for how to make pumpkin puree. I found pretty acceptable directions at a site called PickYourOwn.org. It suggests a few different ways of cooking a pumpkin--baking, microwaving and steaming among them. Knowing how long it takes to bake a dense winter squash in the oven, I opted for steam. I used one of the two pie pumpkins (sometimes called sugar pumpkins or sugar pie pumpkins) I'd purchased at Trader Joe's. Apparently, the large jack-o-lantern types are more likely to turn out stringy, though all are edible. This one measured only about 6 inches across.

I chopped it in half with a sharp knife. PickYourOwn recommended using a serrated knife and a sawing motion, but I used one with a straight-edge, stabbing the point into the orange flesh, then cutting around the sphere until it fell away in two pieces. I scooped out the interior with a heavy-duty ice cream scoop, set the seeds aside to bake later, scraped away the pesky little strings that adhered to the pumpkin's interior walls and cut off the stubby green stem.

Next, I chopped the pumpkin into pieces small enough to fit into my 3.5-quart steamer, put water in the pot up to just below the bottom of the steamer basket, then popped the pumpkin pieces inside, put the lid on and turned on the burner.

After first allowing the water to come to a boil, I turned down the heat and cooked it for about 25 to 30 minutes, poking  a fork into the pumpkin meat occasionally to see if it was soft. When it was, I took off the lid to let the pumpkin cool for a bit. Then came the fun part: scooping out the goop with a spoon. It came away from the rind pretty easily and wasn't at all stringy. Samples of the orange goo were sweeter than I expected and definitely more flavorful than the canned variety. I fantasized about mashing it with a little butter, brown sugar and nutmeg and eating it for dessert. But I'll save that for a future blog.

To make sure there were no lumps or strings, I used my Cuisinart hand blender to puree the mixture (a food processor might work even better). That was a little tricky. The blender works great for liquefying soups, but this mix was a bit thick, so I had to add some of the leftover pumpkin water, which helped. In a few minutes, the mix turned into a gorgeous orange mush. My pumpkin yielded about 2 1/2 cups. Yours might make more, depending on its size, but I was happy with the result. The downside was the entire process took almost 2 hours.  On balance, I might just open a can next time!

Don't forget to check out my recipe for a lighter (but still delicious) Pumpkin Pecan Bread!