Pumpkin bread with pecans and cranberries
POSTED ON November 19, 2011
morning tea with pumpkin bread
I think you will love this pumpkin bread; it has a lovely light and moist texture, and a perfectly sweet flavor from the winter squash and hint of maple syrup. The cranberries add a nice burst of color and tangy flavor to the batter too. This bread is very different from the overly sweet cake-like breads I often come across and it could be served as special breakfast treat. Or, you could bake it to accompany morning tea, as I did for my mother the other day while she was busy knitting us cozy winter scarves.
Since this bread is made with sprouted spelt flour, my new favorite ingredient from Shiloh Farms, it bakes up lighter than regular whole spelt flour and digests easily. The spelt berries are sprouted first so they actually digest as a vegetable, which would explain why we felt so good afterwards.
mashed kabocha squash
If you steam the squash and get your ingredients ready the night before, the bread comes together quite quickly. If there’s any left over, it’s great toasted the following day.
This bread tastes delicious straight up but my mother highly recommends spreading it with butter, while it’s still warm!
with butter!
ingredients
wet and dry ingredients
add the pecans and cranberries- don’t over mix
warm pumpkin bread and the beginning of a scarf
learning to knit!
Spelt pumpkin pecan bread with cranberries
This recipe contains one egg which helps keep the bread moist for a couple of days. If you would like to make a vegan version, replace the egg with ¼ cup of filtered water mixed with a tablespoon of ground flax seeds. Allow the mixture to thicken while you prepare the other ingredients.
2 cups sprouted whole spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups mashed winter squash, I used ½ a large red kabocha*
6 tables extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons maple syrup
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten or flax and water mixture
¾ cup pecans
½ cup fresh cranberries
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spread pecan on a baking sheet and roast for 6 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool and coarsely chop. Set aside.
Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly oil a (9 1/2 inch by 5 inch) loaf pan and line with a piece of parchment paper. (This is not necessary; I just like to be on the safe side!) Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a medium size-mixing bowl, stir with a whisk to combine. Set aside. In another bowl whisk the mashed squash, oil, maple, sea salt and vanilla.
Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Just before mixture is combined, add the pecans and cranberries. Stir a couple of times and scrape into loaf pan. Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes, rotating half way. Test the center with a toothpick; it should come out clean, maybe with a clinging crumb or two. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes before turning out.
POSTED IN Baked Goods, Breakfast
tweet it
pin it
Always lovely…thank you! This’ll be baked up for Thanksgiving morning for sure!
Starting at The Natural Gourmet tomorrow…Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Mmm this looks so good! I’ve never heard of sprouted flour, sounds interesting though. I keep wanting to bake with fresh cranberries but always forget to buy them.
Thank you Amy! I appreciated the vegan version. I didn’t have sprouted spelt flour on hand and used regular spelt flour. I also used the winter squash that we grow instead. It came out really good.Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve just made this again (first time with dried figs and almonds and now with almonds and frozen blueberries from this summer)…how I forgot to buy cranberries, I do not know. I can’t wait to get my hands on some sprouted spelt flour to try it again.
I have never actually seen fresh cranberries! I don’t know if that’s because I just don’t notice them or they are a hard find.. maybe a combination. Would it be horrible to use the dried version if I can’t find the fresh? This looks amazing as all your recipes always do… reminds me of the pumpkin scones (and they were really yum!) so looking forward to making it soon =)
You could use dried cranberries, just plump them in boiling water for 10 minutes first, then drain them well. You could also look for frozen cranberries, they don’t need to be defrosted first.
Happy baking!
beautiful! I love the colors of this bread, but what’s more: I love the ingredients. excellent looking recipe!
This is a fantastic recipie- thanks for sharing!
Can the spelt flour be replaced with a different (gluten free) flour? (ps, merry Christmas!)
I haven’t tried maing this gluten free….if i did I would use a combination of different gluten free flours or maybe the gluten free mix by Bob’s Red Mill’s.
Let me know how it goes!
I love when I come across a recipe that I have almost all of the ingredients just hanging out in my kitchen. 🙂 I can’t wait to try this. If I don’t have spelt flour, can I use half white and half wheat?
Also, I have been learning to knit, too, and people keep telling me that one day I won’t want to use the bamboo needles, prefering instead the metal kind, but I can’t imagine that. Bamboo feels so comforting in my hands.
Wonderful, beautiful blog. Happy Sunday!
I made this twice, the first time with sprouted spring wheat, and the second time with sprouted spelt, (both from Shiloh Farms). They both came out great. I happen to prefer the taste with the sprouted spelt.
I baked this today (for the second time because I love it that much!!) and by accident left out the egg. I had made it with an egg the first time. (I also did not replace the egg with the flax mixture this second time.) It came out great – not having the egg didn’t seem to affect taste or texture.
I love this bread – I have made it several times with different squashes. The only problem I’ve encountered is the timing. I’ve had to cook it for more than and hour and a half to get the inside cooked…I don’t think it’s my oven – any suggestions as to what might be happening?
I am heading to the kitchen right now to bake this bread. It sounds so yummy. There is a blizzard in Colorado right now and I was looking for some warm comfort food. I had all these ingredients in my house and ‘googled’ a recipe. Yours popped up. Amen. Can’t wait to get baking.
Thank you for posting this recipe.
I wanted to test this recipe with a different flour. I used oat and almond. It was very delicious but unfornately took so long to cook. It was in the oven for nearly 2 hours… And still wasn’t cooked through. Anyways the flavors were still delish and new this would be a bit more dense!
Cheyenne, Sorry I missed this….its true oat and almond are much moister than spelt flour. Incase anyone else is trying this. You do need some coconut flour (very little) or some brown rice flour in the mix and will need more gluten free flour than spelt to get it to hold. Glad the flavors were good.
Thanks for cooking from here!
Xo Amy
Would this work if I left out the cranberries?
Yes! It’s delicious with or with out. Enjoy!
Xo