Pumpkin bread

Holiday foods around the world

I like the global features of food and cooking and eating, albeit not so much other aspects of globalisation. I love the fact that I get to know what Hannukah and Rosh Hashanah are, what they eat – or rather don’t – during Ramadan, what Cinco de Mayo is and what’s cooking for that.

It’s a wonderful side of the whole wide world within your reach, down one information highway or another.

I do embrace Thanksgiving and the American autumnal dishes, even though I don’t understand how stuffing is dressing and why they put mushroom soup into a bean casserole. But pumpkin makes me miss a step.

What’s the point of pumpkin?

There’s nothing redeeming about pumpkin in my culinary thinking. It’s a huge beast, impossible to peel and completely tasteless when roasted, boiled, poached or fried.

It’s about as useless as kale. There are so many more interesting vegetables to have that pumpkins (and kale) are a complete waste of time.

Pumpkin pie to me is an acquired taste that I shall never acquire, though I did give it my best try. Pumpkin roast is something the vegetarian acquaintances I don’t particularly like might eat. Pumpkin carving belongs with kids and a pumpkin fondue is lovely, but I have a perfectly good fondue pot which is about as edible.

Pumpkin bread though…

But I’ll say it very quickly: pumpkin bread is good. It is just the thing to do with this tin of pumpkin puree knocking about the cupboard. With boosted interest from chunks of walnuts and dried cranberries, it’s actually deliciously moist and excellent toasted and buttered.

Obviously, it’s not bread as we know it in the UK and Europe, but since it’s an American food, I’m keeping the ‘bread’ in its name. To us here it is simply a loaf cake, but over the Atlantic they insist that those loaf tin bakes, like banana or pumpkin, are ‘quick breads’.

How to make the pumpkin batter

It is quite a long list of ingredients, because there are spices, two kinds of sugar and added cranberries and walnuts. But the method is easy and familiar. All the dry ingredients are stirred together, the wet ones whisked in a separate bowl and then folded into the dry mix.

The brown sugar addition is there for the smoky, treacly flavour. The spices are cinnamon and cloves, the latter added judiciously as they do get overpowering. And I wholly recommend stirring the spices into sugars before adding the other dry ingredients into the mix.

If you live in America, I’m sure you can buy ready-mixed pumpkin spice which of course can be used instead of the individual spices.

Baking time is quite long, almost an hour and a half because this is really dense batter. When out, cool it so that the tin can be handled, turn it out onto a cake rack and shower with icing sugar.

More pumpkin and squash recipes

Pumpkin and cranberry pie with filling made with condensed milk and canned pumpkin purée. Homemade pie crust from scratch and a cranberry layer are the winning factors in this festive pie.

Baked pumpkin with melted cheese, an ideal recipe for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Bonfire Night. Pumpkin fondue in individual mini pumpkins, that’s is the best way to prepare a pumpkin.

Kabocha squash gratin, a creamy, cheesy, delightfully comforting winter dish using a lesser known squash, also known as Japanese pumpkin. The recipe is thoroughly homely though: kabocha slices baked in cream and cheese flavoured with thyme.

More quick bread aka loaf cake recipes

Perfect banana cake, with raisins and cinnamon. This banana bread recipe is very easy and the mix can be also made into banana muffins or banana cupcakes.

The easiest cake recipe ever: coconut loaf cake by Bill Granger. This coconut bread uses shredded or flaked coconut, not desiccated coconut. The quickest coconut loaf cake, it tastes the best lightly toasted and buttered.

Cranberry and walnut bread made with fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped walnuts and orange juice and zest. It has intense flavour, gorgeous cranberry tang and crunchy sugar topping.