Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mmmm Smells Like Fall!

So since I've been sick all week, I haven't had a lot of energy to cook or bake much.  I was feeling a little more energetic today so I decided that it would be a great day to bake.  I had a lot of homework to do and a lot of football to watch so why not bake something yummy at the same time?  My friends and I had been running across a lot of recipes with pumpkin in it recently and one of my friend's moms had made pumpkin muffins so I thought humm wouldn't pumpkin bread be good?  It's starting to really feel like fall now so I figured now was a better time than ever to get into the fall spirit!  When I was browsing over one of my new favorite websites http://www.skinnytaste.com/, I stumbled across a recipe for pumpkin bread that looked fairly simple, healthy, and delicious...all the essentials duh.  So I decided to go for it!  Not going to lie, I had to pull up the recipe on my phone at the grocery store because I forgot to write it down but I got everything I needed so it got the job done.  

After I returned home, I preheated the oven to the usual 350F and got to mixing.  Here is the recipe that I used which is basically the same one off of "Skinny Taste"...

1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon  nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
cooking spray
1/3 cup white chocolate chips (I added these but come on I add chocolate chips to everything)

So first things first was to grease a 9 x 5 in loaf pan with cooking spray.  After this, I began to combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt in a medium sized bowl.  I whisked them all together with a wire whisk but I don't think that you would necessarily have to use this.  I think anything to mix them together would be fine but that's just me.  After mixing all those together, I began to combine all the wet ingredients into a large bowl.  I mixed the oil, egg whites, pumpkin puree, and vanilla together.  Surprisingly I didn't have as much trouble with separating the egg whites this time so I was really happy that I actually got them both out on the first try!  I used a handheld mixer to beat all these ingredients together until well blended.  I scraped down the sides of the bowl as well to make sure that I got all the mix that I could.  I then slowly added the dry ingredients to the large bowl with the wet and mixed them all together until they were well combined and smooth.  Here's a little peak at the batter before pouring it into the pan...

Yum pumpkin

After everything was all mixed, it was time to be poured in the pan.  I had a little trouble at first holding the bowl and scraping it out but I didn't make a mess and it made it all into the pan safe and sound thankfully.  The chocolate chips were the final touch to the pumpkin bread and I basically just sprinkled them evenly on top.  I didn't measure out how much I used so the 1/3 of cup was an estimate because I just poured out of the bag.  Here's the loaf before it started to bake...



Into the oven the loaf went after this and I cooked it for about 50 minutes...a little too long sadly.  I first though that the recipe said 20 minutes so I pulled it out after that but it was clearly not done.  I went back and read again that I had read that it was supposed to cool for 20 minutes and cook for 50-55 minutes.  So I put the loaf back in the oven and set the timer for another 30 minutes.  Since I was busy doing other things like homework and watching football ha, I forgot to keep checking on it.  When the timer finally went off, I went to pull it out and the edges looked a little burnt...bummer.  I think if I hadn't of taken it out that 50 minutes would have been ok but I also am still not completely used to our oven so I don't know.  Since the loaf would cook more in the pan after taking it out, I took a knife around the rim so that I could try to maneuver it out when it had cooled a little.  Here's what I saw when it came out of the oven...

Looks a little crispy but it was really good I promise!

  I let it cook for about 10 minutes and then flipped it onto a plate and then to a wire rack to continue cooling.  Shockingly the loaf stayed in tact so it worked!  I cut a little piece off the end and it was actually really good!  The outside is a little burnt so I think I will cut off the edges but the inside was so creamy and delicious.  It's like fall on a plate I swear.  So moral of the story, if you like pumpkins and fall make this bread because it's very easy and delicious and it's like eating fall!  Enjoy!

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