Can you guess which one of these bad boys got roasted and baked into a yummy bread today?

If you guessed the kabocha squash, and not either of those other shady-looking hooligans up there, you win!

Mmmmm, sweet and fluffy bread…

I have been racking my brain for what to do with that kabocha for weeks now. Then I remembered the vegan pumpkin bread that I made a while back and thought, “Hmm…I wonder how that would taste with kabocha instead?”

First, I made kabocha puree with the exact same method I use to make pumpkin puree.

I followed the same recipe as the pumpkin bread, but here are the ingredients again anyway:

• 1 cup kabocha puree
• 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Lucas took great interest in the whirring sounds coming from the stand mixer.

He was very suspicious and glared at it with malice as I added my dry ingredients to the wet.

When the batter was mixed I tossed in a few handfuls of pecan pieces, somewhere between 1/2 cup and 3/4?  I’m not sure how much really. It usually won’t affect a recipe to add as much mix-ins as you like.

Those got stirred in by hand…

The mix was scooped into a buttered and floured loaf pan.  I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top before baking it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Out came this hot, fluffy pillow…

I let it cool to the touch before turning it out onto a cooling rack.  Then, the slicing!

Yum! This one was even better than the pumpkin bread. The texture was fluffier and lighter and the flavor was more earthy and intense.

Kabocha pecan bread

A fluffy autumnal vegan snack bread with flavors of savory kabocha and nutty pecans.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 1 cup kabocha puree
• 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance (or butter)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 cup pecan pieces

Cooking Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugars with a mixer.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to the creamed butter and sugar.
3. Slowly pour in almond milk while mixing on a low setting.
4. Stir in pecans by hand.
5. Pour batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan, top with a sprinkle of sugar for added crunch.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
7. Turn out and let cool on a rack completely before slicing.
8. Store in refrigerator.

Thinking very seriously about whipping up some of that cinnamon “cream cheese” frosting that I used on my apple bars to top this with!

November 28, 2010 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 8 comments

Sitting here eating a little breakfast of toasted vegan pumpkin bread smeared with Earth Balance, and a hot and damp-smelling pu-erh tea.

Today is a great day because it’s my husbands last day at his current place of employment!  He is moving on to much greener pastures and I’m so proud of him for pursuing more fulfilling work.

What’s really great about that is that I get him all to myself all week while he takes some time off before his next job starts.

I love it when we’re off during the week together.  It makes me feel so sneaky, like we’re cutting class or something! I also never get anything done when he’s home cuz we goof off and play games all day.

Maybe I should try to get a little housework done before he gets home then?

October 19, 2010 Alayna Discussion Comments Off on A week with the hubs

So, we’ve had a bunch of bananas in the freezer for kind of a while now and I’ve been meaning to turn them into banana bread for as long as they’ve been in there.

Today was the day! Banana bread for everyone! Yay to using up left-overs!

Not really.

I put the bananas in the fridge to thaw over-night and what greeted me this morning was not pleasant. They had oozed out a brown banana-scented liquid all over the fridge and were sagging and falling apart.  They were in an unsalvageable state.

Enter pumpkin, our hero of this tale! I knew I made all that pumpkin puree for something!

I was inspired by this recipe.  I’ve made quite a few changes to the original so I don’t feel bad about writing it out with my adjustments for you:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Start by creaming together the vegan butter and sugars, then add the pumpkin. This picture shows the wrong way to do it…

I got ahead of myself here and added the pumpkin in with the sugars because that’s what the original recipe said to do. The butter clumped though, and I think it would have incorporated better without the pumpkin present. The finished product didn’t seem to be affected by the uneven butter though, so no worries if you do it this way.

Meanwhile, mix all the dry stuff together…

Add it to the wet slowly, in three installments.  When it’s completely incorporated, add the almond milk and mix through.

Pour into a buttered and floured loaf pan and spread to the edges.

Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

And here she is!…

I let it sit until it was cool enough to pick up then turned it out of the pan and let it cool on a rack.

I did not have high hopes for this bread, the batter tasted kind of awful. The finished bread is a real winner though.  It’s not too sweet; should make a great breakfast bread. It may look a bit dry in the pictures, but I assure you it’s nice and supple!

I’d say this is a triumphant ending to the great banana massacre that took place in my fridge.

Oh, pumpkin.  You’re my hero!

October 18, 2010 Alayna Discussion, Recipes Comments Off on Vegan banana (er…pumpkin) bread