Pumpkins, anyone?
I'm hardly a fan of pumpkin growing up. Somehow in our family, we're typically not a fan of sweet taste unless they're in the form of cakes and pastries. It was only very recently, when I changed my diet and got onto team #eatclean did I started eating pumpkins frequently.
Yup, they're one of the most diet-friendly food, being low in calories (at only 50 kcals per cup!) and yet, nutrient-dense. However, taste wise, I'll still prefer sweet potatoes (or brown/multigrain rice) as my source of starchy carbs. I guess that's why many times my "impulse pumpkin buys" always ends up in nearly half of the unfinished pumpkin going bad in the fridge. T.T
And so I decided, I'm not going to let anymore precious food go to waste! Left with a generous quarter cut of my pumpkin that's nearing the end of its shelf life, I decided to bake something out of it! Initially I thought of trying out the recipe for my healthy sweet potato brownies and substituting the sweet potatoes with pumpkins, but that'll leave me with too much brownies to eat alone (I'm the only person in the family who enjoys chocolatey bakes). And so I thought, why not some pumpkin quick bread instead? And similar to my previous recipe for the applesauce walnut & raisin quick bread, there's nothing "bready" about this quick bread, and they're way more like muffins.
So much so that I even baked some in muffin form. HAHA!
So now let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started!
To get 1 standard loaf serving (10 - 12 slices), you'll need:
150g raw pumpkin (or about 130g canned pumpkin puree)
2 eggs
55g plain greek yogurt
40g brown sugar
30g castor sugar
(or you can use 70g of either sugar)
110g plain flour
30g green banana flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 ground nutmeg
1/4 salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
60 - 70g semi-sweet chocolate chips
30 - 40g pumpkin seeds (plus a handful more as toppings, if desire)
First up, wash your pumpkin clean and remove the skin and seeds (you can roast the seeds and eat them too!). Cut them into thin slices and steam for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on how thin you slice them) until they're thoroughly cooked through and soft. Pour off the excess liquid that has drained out of the pumpkins and mash them up with a fork. Stir in the sugars until well combined and leave them aside to cool.
When the mashed pumpkin has cooled down, add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined. Then, add in the greek yogurt and vanilla extract and mix well. Then, mix in the green banana flour, salt and spices until well combined. There's no gluten in green banana flour, so there's no risk of overmixing the batter at this point.
Then, from your bowl of 110g plain flour, spoon a heaping tablespoon of it and toss it with your chocolate chips & pumpkin seeds. This trick will help them stay up in the middle of the loaf rather than sinking to the bottom during baking. Add the remaining plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into the mixture and fold lightly to combine, until there's just a few streaks of dry ingredients. At this point, add in the chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds and fold until just combined, with no more streaks of dry ingredients to be seen.
Pour your batter into your prepared loaf pan (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and lined with parchment paper) and bake at 175 degree Celsius for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Do check on them at the 30 minute mark, and if you see that the surface has gotten too browned, you can cover the top with some aluminium foil to prevent over-browning.
Although this is also a quick bread, its texture is totally different from the one I made with applesauce and butter (my applesauce walnut & raisin quick bread). While the applesauce-butter one is more moist and with a denser, cakier texture, this version made with greek yogurt and pumpkin puree turns out drier and a lot more chewy.
To be honest, I think I will prefer the applesauce-butter version. HAHAHA! What's baked goods without butter, right?
Till then,
Mia Foo
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