Healthy and warm, this melt-in-your-mouth spiced pumpkin bread is lightly sweetened and total comfort smeared with cashew butter, without all the guilt!
This is my favorite time of year for food! Everything is so warm, and cozy, spiced, and comforting. oh and the baking! SO.many.goods! Right now is when I can’t hardly keep up with everything I want to make! I am so torn every week when I’m doing my meal planning, because while of course I want to come up with and make new recipes to share, there are just SO many amazing mouthwatering foods from all around the blogosphere! I find myself making two big meals a day sometimes, just to attempt to try everything!
All the new recipes that pop up every day make me want to quit my own blog so I can spend all my time trying those ones..my Pinterest boards are beginning to overwhelm me! But of course I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll try toaccept that my “winter coat” is coming back, and just enjoy every bite of everything. 😉
But like I mentioned last week, all this comfort food is good for the soul, not always good for the waistline and the arteries, soo I’m still lightening it up where I can without sacrificing a darn thing. Not flavor, not texture, not that comfort food feeling..it’s all still there..promise!
Pumpkin bread is one of my favorites! My kids love it, my husband absolutely adores it..it can be, and usually is, breakfast, a snack, or dessert. It’s fantastic. If I’m going to be eating it that frequently though, I try to keep the ingredients tipped towards the healthier end of the scale!
This Pumpkin Bread is melt-in-your-mouth good! It starts with the Cashew Butter…ohmygod…I was eating that stuff with a spoon. Creamy, sweet and salty goodness. If you don’t feel like making cashew butter, though you really definitely should, any nut butter you have will work. (But make the cashew butter, It’s heaven!) There are no refined sugars, just pure maple syrup to lightly sweeten this bread, and 100% whole wheat flour..none of this half all purpose half whole wheat bologna.
Sidebar: I hate when recipes are titled “whole wheat…” and then when you read it, it’s half whole wheat, half white flour. That’s annoying and totally false. But I digress.
This bread is super healthy, very moist, spiced to the max, lightly sweetened, and SO good. You must warm up each slice before eating it, and then slather it with the cashew butter to get the full experience. Totally worth it!
Healthy and warm, this melt-in-your-mouth spiced pumpkin bread is lightly sweetened and total comfort smeared with cashew butter, without all the guilt!
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole cashews
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 cup pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/2 cup cashew butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/4 cup ground flax
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Add the cashews to a food processor and pulse until they turn to a paste.
- Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey. Continue pulsing until it becomes smooth and creamy. About ten minutes. I used the same method as I did in this almond butter post.
- Preheat oven to 325°
- To make the bread: In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, apple sauce, and cashew butter. Using a rubber spatula, mix until smooth.
- Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla, and syrup.
- Add the flour, flax, baking soda & powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and salt. Fold in until just combined.
- Line a bread pan with parchment paper that slightly hangs over the sides.
- Pour the batter into the lined pan, smoothing out the top.
- Pop in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, removing from the oven when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cook for 10 minutes in the pan, before lifting with the parchment and cooling on a rack.
- Slice, smear with almond butter, and enjoy!
Notes
To store the bread: wrap it in tin foil and keep in the fridge. I keep my cashew butter out on the counter, sealed for about 5 days, before storing in the fridge as well, if it isn't all gone yet.
Adapted from my almond butter banana bread