Autumn flavours are all around us now! There’s nothing better than some fresh baking to fill the house with a feeling of warmth and love. I thought I’d share a fantastic recipe with you for pumpkin gingerbread loaf…you know…to use up some of that pumpkin that you may have left over from your Jack-O-Lantern carving.
I have been trying to use up things in the freezer this month so as to try to save a little money and put off grocery shopping. I also don’t want anything in the freezer to get freezer burn or be forgotten about. You know what it’s like after a while…things fall to the bottom and a year later you can’t remember what it used to be. A month of eating what you have on hand can be interesting. We call meals like this our ‘freezer surprise’ meals. You just never know what you’ll have. A little of this, a little of that.
So after the next payday I’ll be busy making huge batches of pasta sauce and soups and restocking our freezer with delicious and healthy meals ready to go. Pumpkin freezes well, and I need to make room to put more in the freezer next week so that I can bake delicious treats all winter long.
Actually, you have your choice with this recipe. On this occasion, I made two mini loaves, 6 regular-sized muffins, as well as 24 mini-muffins. You can make any (or all of these), or make 1 or 2 larger loaves as well. It all depends on whether you want to keep your baking to yourself, or share it!
This recipe is very easy to make, and it doesn’t take much prep time. I made it one Saturday night after the kids were in bed while Phil was preparing our ‘date night’ meal.
Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaf Ingredients
- 2 1/4 Cups Flour
- 2 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 Cup chopped dried dates
- 1 Cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1 Cup pumpkin puree (I used my own puree, but you can use a tin of puree – not pie filling)
- 1/3 Cup buttermilk
- 1/3 Cup Corn oil
- 1/4 Cup molasses or treacle
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 Eggs
- Cooking spray
Directions for Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaf
1) Preheat your oven to 400F/ 180 C.
2) Combine the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl.
3) Mix in the dates.
4) Make a well in the centre of this mixture.
5) In another bowl, mix all of the remaining ingredients except for the cooking spray.
6) Pour this mixture into the well of the first mixture.
7) Stir until just moist.
8) Spray your loaf tins with cooking spray, or use paper cases if you have them.
9) Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of your baking comes out clean. The time will vary depending on whether you’re baking muffins or loaves.
10) Remove from the pans right away and cool on a wire rack.
This recipe also freezes well, which is where part of our last batch is now sitting. I had made it with intentions to share, but due to unforseen circumstances we were unable to attend. So we’ll hold off and share these at the next event…if they last that long!
