Nearly twenty years ago I sat at my grandmother’s dining room table in rural Eastern Canada scoffing slabs of home made pumpkin bread thick with butter and chatting about this, that and the other thing, as granddaughters are wont to do with their grandmothers. I’d recently started compiling a ring-bound notebook of my favourite recipes as I’d just really started getting into cooking and baking. I asked my grandmother for the recipe she used to make this delicious, spiced pumpkin bread and she gladly obliged. You can see the recipe in the photo below. Transcribing these barely legible recipes from my battered old notebook is one of the reasons I started blogging; I wanted a more permanent place to store them before they were lost!
The pumpkins available in my local Shetland (my island home in the North Sea) supermarkets are, as far as I am aware, not the sugar pumpkin required to make a palatable pumpkin purée. They’re inexpensive and meant for carving only, I think, although I have been told some local folk have used them successfully in soups. I tried roasting one once and it just wouldn’t purée properly (it was stringy and awful) so I gave up.
However, my last vegetable box brought a surprise – 1/3 of a giant, gorgeous, vibrant organic sugar pumpkin grown in a poly-tunnel just a few miles down the road from my house! The colour of these beauties is nothing like the mass produced supermarket variety and right away I popped it into the oven to roast.
To roast your own pumpkin to make a purée simply place your pumpkin cut side up on a baking dish, brush with a little olive oil, cover with foil and roast for an hour or so at 180 C until softened. Cool and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight to cool completely. The next day scoop out the chilled flesh and purée!
This month’s Random Recipes by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen asks us to share our recipes that include a local ingredient. I made this recipe using locally grown pumpkin, a random ingredient from my Transition Turriefield veg box, so I think that qualifies.
I’m also sharing this recipe with Mark from Javelin Warrior and his fabulous Made with Love Mondays from-scratch recipe collection and to The Colour Me Photography Challenge Series by The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen.
Pumpkin Loaf
- 1 tsp nutmeg, ground
- 1 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1/2 tsp cloves, ground
- 1/4 tsp ginger, ground
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 ml sunflower oil
- 620 grams caster sugar
- 300 grams pumpkin purée
- 180 ml water
- 525 grams plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 2-3 loaves
Hi, I made pumpkin loaf before and it took me 4 failed attempts to get it right. Can I ask why plain flour not self raising? I’m not Baker but I aboslutely love making pumpkin loaf with home grown pumpkins
Many thanks
Megan
Did you make this recipe four times and failed?! 😮 I used plain flour as that’s what my grandmother’s recipe called for. Back in Canada where I grew up we didn’t have such a thing as self-raising flour. I only started using that when I moved to the UK. I hope this recipe works for you. 🙂
Oh this looks very good. My daughter has demanded an extra large pumpkin lantern so I need more pumpkin recipes in my life. I really like the fact I need a given weight of pumpkin puree – I can puree my monster and freeze batches of puree. And it’s something everyone will want to eat, and not give me the ‘pumpkin soup again….’ face.
I llike this. There’s an autumn tang in the air here in Yorkshire already and it has me thinking of autumnal food. I need more pumpkin recipes in my life. I have to carve several every halloween and there’s only so much pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie a body needs.
Pumpkin purée freezes really well so you can make things with it later on in the year. It makes a nice ravioli filling too 🙂 There is a hint of autumn in the air here in Shetland already too. Temperatures were in the single digits again this morning..
Lovely post and a delicious looking loaf. Of course, in Australia we are big users of pumpkin in both sweet and savoury dishes. Went I moved to the UK for 18mths, I knew I wasn’t going to see much pumpkin and it turned out to be true. Though not my favourite (I’m more a sweet potato girl), I still missed it. Thanks for sharing.
How wonderful – I love pumpkin and this looks perfect.
Delicious and so autumnal with all the spices…adding it to my ‘must bake’ list
Look gorgeous – that texture looks perfect! Pinned 🙂 Thanks very much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. There’s a new linky live now – would be brilliant to see you there again! 🙂 x
I love scribbled recipes and handed down ones too. This pumpkin loaf looks delicious and I haven’t made anything quite like it before.
I wish I had written down my grandmom’s recipes. I have my Mom’s handwritten recipe book with me though and it is already falling to pieces. I must do something about it!
The pumpkin loaf looks perfect Elizabeth. It’s so inviting. And loved the captures, especially of those gorgeous pumpkins 🙂
Made your pumpkin loaf the other day. I was a bit reluctant as my dear husband does not like pumpkin pie. While it was baking he came in and proclaimed ” what smells so good ? ” I casually told him a pumpkin loaf and he looked very dismayed. He said ” you know I do not like Pumpkin Pie ” !!!!!. Well the loaf was more than a success. Well we both thought it was delicious. Thank you , Elizabeth.
Oh I’m so glad Larry liked it! That’s made my day 🙂 Next time you see Ann you can tell her you made her pumpkin bread!
I envy your notebook of recipes, Elizabeth! I would have loved to capture recipes from grandparents like that – only by the time I realized I enjoyed the kitchen, the opportunity was long gone… This pumpkin bread sounds delicious and isn’t making homemade pumpkin puree simple? But then, I suppose having access to pie pumpkin is key 🙂
I suppose I was quite fortunate that when I started my own food adventure I had the foresight to ask for family recipes! Pumpkin puree is remarkably simple, but getting a hold of a tasty pumpkin isn’t! 🙂
This looks lovely. They had some nice small pumpkins in Tesco today (as well as the huge ones that are just for Hallowe’en!). I made a similar loaf recently with pureed, roasted butternut squash and it turned out to be really good so maybe people could try that if they can’t get a good pumpkin.
That’s a really good idea! They are quite similar foods, after all! Thank you for leaving a comment 🙂
fantastic that you found some local pumpkin to bake with – that would have made you feel at home as much as your grandmother’s recipe I suspect. And how forward thinking of you to ask your grandmother for a recipe – I wish I had asked my grandmothers for recipes when I had the chance to talk to them about baking. I also wish they had made such lovely pumpkin tea cake (as we would call it) – looks luscious
It really did! I love working from scratch like this. It feels properly authentic somehow. I bet your grandmothers made some superb dishes too – it might be an idea to try to recreate them yourself? 🙂
I love these recipes that are handed down for generations and tried and true.
They are always the best, I agree 🙂 Thanks for leaving a comment! x
This sounds awesome! I’m on a mission to get people in the UK to use pumpkin more. I’ve had some success with store bought pumpkin, so i’ll try it with this! 😀
I second that motion! I hope your drive is successful 🙂 I do hope you like this recipe if/when you try it. Do let me know how you get on!
That loaf looks so delicious Elizabeth, especially those pictures of the slices smothered in butter – yum, yum and more yum. Feeling very sad we didn’t manage to grow any pumpkin this year because it is virtually impossible to buy a decent one. What a lovely surprise for you to get one in your box.
Thanks Choclette – I thought so too when I sliced off some bits and buttered them for the family. It’s a shame there aren’t nicer pumpkins available commercially. Someone should fill that gap! I was so lucky to get some!
I’ve made soup before and it was only half successful, possibly as you say because of the variety of pumpkin – your bread looks absolutely gorgeous though! 🙂
I thought for years that all pumpkins were the same and they were all edible. It wasn’t until I couldn’t make a proper puree that I learned the truth! Thanks for leaving a comment 🙂
This looks so delicious!
Thanks Kat, it’s super tasty too!
well, it looks stunning for a start and I love how pumpkin adds a moisture and a depth of flavour to a cake… secondly, there is nothing I love more than an old, hand-writen recipe… how lovely for you to recreate this for random recipes, thank you so much x
Thanks Dom 🙂 I love a handwritten recipe too, but not so much when it’s illegible! Thanks for hosting such an excellent challenge.
I’ve been holding off making anything with pumpkin because I hated butternut squash soup so much but your incredibly easy instructions for making your own pumpkin purée has made me change my mind. I WILL make some and bake a cake with it! I’ll have to make do with a supermarket pumpkin though sadly because I don’t think my local veg market stall does them =p
Aw thanks! You should do it as it’s remarkably simple and the flavour is out of this world! Good luck and do let me know how you get on!