Spiced Eggless Pumpkin Quick Bread

Pumpkin bread is the kind of food that you want to take with you when your mind wanders into nostalgia. It evokes a lot of emotions, most of all happiness. Done with the right spices, this wonder food, which is a big source of Vitamin A, can be relished as a snack any time of the day.

With my resolve to post a pumpkin recipe everyday of this week leading to Thanksgiving day, I made a list of all the dishes I wanted to prepare and this bread topped the list. It is an extremely simple quick bread which means there is no wait time required between making the batter and baking.

The pumpkin bread is symbolic of warmth. The recipe below does not make an overtly sweet bread. Its a sure-fire crowd pleaser and I am very happy to report that the two food critics in my house absolutely loved it! I recommend it as a kid friendly recipe and it can easily make its way into the school snack box.

Spiced Eggless Pumpkin Quick Bread 

Recipe adapted from Gayathri's cookspot
Servings: 1 9-inch loaf
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 60 mins

Ingredients 

1 cup All purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour
1 cup granulated Sugar
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Double acting Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2-3 Cloves (If using powder then 1/2 tsp)
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/2 cup Oil
3 tbsp Honey
3 tbsp Water
Chopped walnuts (handful to 1/2 cup)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line a 9 inch loaf tin with parchment paper or grease with oil.
2. Sift together all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour. sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves together in a bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together pumpkin puree, oil, water, honey
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form a thick batter. Mix only till well combined, do not overmix.
5. Fold in the walnuts
6. Fill the loaf tin with the thick batter and lightly spread to be even topped
7. Bake at 350 deg F for 60 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean with no batter sticking to it. Check from 55 mins to see if it is done
8.  Remove from oven and cool in the loaf tin for 5 minutes. Continue to cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Puree

'Ts the week where all of America is thinking about recipes. After all its the biggest culinary expedition of the year. Thanksgiving! 
Vegetarians and Vegans have a lot of resources on the internet to ensure they dont have to forego joining in the celebration. Potatoes, Beans and Pumpkin are some of the vegetables that find their way to the dinner spread and creatively so. My take is that there is only so much you could stuff into a turkey so all the creativity gets unleashed on accompaniments and dessert. I have decided to dedicate this week to recipes which could easily adorn the Thanksgiving banquet.
What better way to do this than the rotund pumpkin.

As luck would have it I had a huge pumpkin leftover from the Halloween times which had failed to make it to a Jack-o-Lantern. I had to use it before it spoilt. Does a pumpkin spoil? I dont know but I wasnt going to find out today. I took it out of the refridgerator and what ensued after that was a 40-min ordeal to crack it open! The shell was extremely hard and I had never encountered a pumpkin with such a hard exterior. Armed with a sharp knife and gritting my teeth I started puncturing through the vegetable with T reminding me of the fact that I am a klutz and should be careful. I have a history of slicing right through my hands so I dont blame him for being worried. Once I had it open it took me an indecisive 5 minutes to resolve making a puree out of the whole thing instead of trying to skin it for a curry.
Pureeing a pumpkin is really simple as you will read later on. Once done, it could be frozen for a few months atleast and used whenever required. The puree could be used in baking recipes, soups, casseroles etc.

Pumpkin Puree 

Servings: 4 cups from a pumpkin the size of a football.
Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins (includes waiting time)

Ingredients

1 Pumpkin (size of a football)

Instructions

1. Cut the pumpkin into quarters
2. Place it on baking tray
3. Bake at 350 deg F for an hour
4. Allow it to cool and then scrape the pulp out of the skin
5. Blend the pulp in a food processor or mixer to a paste. Use a couple of tbsp of water if required.
6. Store in an airtight container. Freeze for longevity.

Spooky Witches Fingers (Eggless)

Its that time of the year where scary and spooky are mainstream. Halloween brings with it a carnival kind of atmosphere where everyone wants to pretend to be someone else. Going by the number of Halloween Express shops that open up in October, its a mad rush to get out of the skin of one's own life. Before my blog goes all philosophical and analytical on this top I will turn the focus back to food. Pumpkins are everywhere for halloween but not really as a dish. Jack-o-Lanterns adorn many lawns and door steps. Wildly imaginative cookies and cupcakes are also the norm.

I decided to bake the spooky witches fingers to celebrate the Halloween mood early and also as part of the Home Bakers Challenge. The recipe here is a keeper and gives consistent good results. My biggest tip while baking cookies is to chill the shaped dough for atleast 5 minutes before popping it into the oven. This slows down the spread and ensures you dont have to get it off the tray with a spatula.
My daughter refused to even come close to them in the beginning but enjoyed eating it after we demonstrated that they were really harmless. But the whole episode made me gloat with pride at such a life like creation! The hubby who, as my blog readers will know, hates sweets also devoured many many of these fingers.

Spooky Witches Fingers (Eggless)

Recipe Adapted from here
Servings: 30 pieces
Prep Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 25 mins per batch

Ingredients 

1 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Butter (softened)
1/2 cup Sugar
Ener-G Egg Replacer equivalent of 1/2 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
30 Whole Almonds with skin

Instructions

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sieve and set aside.
2. Whisk the sugar and butter till well combined (whitish and fluffy). This took me around 3-4 minutes.
3. To this add the egg replacer and vanilla essence and whisk for another couple of minutes.
4. Add the dry mixture in parts to the wet mixture and mix till combined.
5. The whole thing comes together as a soft dough. Cover and refridgerate for 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 325 F.
7. Remove small portion of the dough at a time from the fridge, shape into desired form and place an inch apart on a cookie tray.
8. Refridgerate the cookie tray for atleast 5 minutes and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove when base is lightly browned. 
9. Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for 5 minutes and then cook on a wire rack. 

To shape like a finger

1. Pinch of a small ball of dough and place on parchment paper.
2. Working quickly press and elongate to a log of around 4 inches long and 1/4 inch diameter. 
3. Pinch the edge on one side to give a tapered look. That's the nail side
4. Pinch in the log along the length
5. Using a blunt knife (butter knife) make indentations cross-wise on the log to give it a natural look
6. Press a whole almond on the tapered edge