Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup pumpkin purée*
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (if you like nuts in your bread)

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.

2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.

3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.

Can easily double the recipe.

*Recipe from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pumpkin_bread/

- Sarah


**Apparently grocery stores only sell pumpkin during the fall season so it was really hard to find this time of year.  I had to go to Walmart; they, of course, had it.**

Pumpkin Pancakes with Bananas

My friend Ellen made these when we visited her a couple weeks ago - they were so good!

Ingredients


1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat, inspired by Ellen)
2 T sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 cup milk
6 T pumpkin puree
2 T melted butter
1 egg
1 chopped banana (my addition)


Preparation


In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients together.  In a small bowl mix milk, pumpkin, butter and egg together. Fold the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients.  Melt some butter in a skillet and pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.  Drop banana pieces onto the poured pancakes before flipping.


These are really good and a refreshing twist to regular pancakes.  I added bananas because they make everything better!

*Recipe from http://www.marthastewart.com/271839/pumpkin-pancakes

- Sarah