Vegan Cook-a-Long

Pumpkin (pie) Bread

The husband and I love pumpkin, in all it's forms. So we were excited to make pumpkin pie this weekend. Or rather, I was excited to make it while he listed LPs for sale on eBay, and he was excited to eat it.

We went to our favorite, all-veggie enormous grocery store for some of the ingredients. Oh, alas!!!!! No crusts!!! And we didn't have time to go to another store. So I'm also going to break the rules a bit and post about what I made instead, using ingredients we did have. Pumpkin Bread. We are still very excited about the pie and will make it during the week once we get the crust at a different store.

I looked in my vegan cookbooks and Vegan Family Favorites has a tasty looking recipe but it calls for applesauce, of which I had none. So I turned instead, to the old trusty favorite, The Joy of Cooking. Pumpkin Bread on page 784. Here are those invited to the party:

The spices are whisked into the flour, along with leavening and salt.

The sugars get married, and almond milk gets a visit from Mr. Vanilla extract.

The pumpkin is measured, the Ener-G egg replacer is watered, and the butter is mixed with the sugar.Then the pumpkin and egg replacer are added, turning the batter a beautiful color!
Into the oven in a slightly smaller than required pan, and thus two muffins (not shown)


And out it comes!Sliced open:


Verdict: At first, it was very soft and mushy. I knew that part of that was because it was still very hot. But I was afraid that substituting Ener-G and almond milk for the eggs and milk might have made it too liquidy. But two hours later, my fears were alayed, when my omni FIL ate almost the entire loaf! The husband and I shared the last piece, and it was almost perfect!

I will definitely make it again, just using a tiny bit less liquid. Stay tuned this week for a post about pumpkin pie!

ETA: Here's the recipe! We made it a second time just using muffins and it was much better.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Prepare either a 6 jumbo muffin pan or an 8 regular muffin pan (grease it, or add paper cups, or do nothing if it's nonstick.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C all-purpose unbleached flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Spice blend: You should have about 3 tsp of spices altogether - some combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, or other sweet baking spices. Here's what the recipe called for:

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger

I didn't have cinnamon so I used premade pumpkin pie spice instead.

1 cup pureed pumpkin, yam, or squash
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/3 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 TB Earth Balance or other vegan margerine (at room temperature)
2 eggs' worth of egg replacer. I use Ener-G (3 tsp powder mixed with 4 TB warm water for two eggs)

Instructions:

1. Mix flour, spices, and baking soda and powder in a small bowl.

2. Blend sugars into margerine and stir until creamy.

3. Add squash of choice and blend until creamy.

4. Add egg-replacer and blend.

5. Add flour mixture and milk (just pour the vanilla into the milk), alternating between some of each a few times until the batter is well-blended and creamy.

6. Pour into muffin pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then remove to rack to cool for at least another 20. If you try to eat them before they cool properly, they will seem uncooked in the middle.

posted by Anonymous @ 1:26 AM