Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread with jaggery

October brings a plethora of pumpkins after the fall harvest. The 2 famous fall pumpkin recipes - pumpkin spice and pumpkin pies are not something I enjoy or look forward to, and one doesn't even have pumpkin in it. But pumpkin as a vegetable is versatile and it can be used in savory and sweet dishes. Pumpkin Indian flat breads are the softest and most tastiest.

To make these pumpkin muffins the pumpkin can be steamed or roasted but I prefer roasted in baked good and it doesn't take all that much time. Using good quality cooking pumpkins that don't have a stringy pulp is important. I recommend you find cooking pumpkins as opposed to the halloween pumpkins because they are not as tasty or worth the effort. Check this out for "How to roast a pumpkin".

We generally tend to eat pumpking bread or muffins for breakfast and I have reduced the amount of sugar. If you want it as a sweet bread increase the amount of sugar. Adding nuts and dotting some of them with chocolate chips gives it some more sweetness for those with a sweet tooth. These low sugar breads can be enjoyed with icecream as a sweet treat.

I used ramekins to bake them into smaller size to resemble slightly bigger muffins. Loaf pan works fine too. Using unrefined sugar or jaggery or any kind of natural unprocessed sugar.

Recipe in pictures,

Seive and whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Get the eggs ready.
Whisk the oil and jaggery. Add the eggs and whisk them altogether.
Add the pumpkin into the egg and oil mixture.
Start adding the flour into the pumpkin mixture and mix it gently till incorporated.
Fold in the nuts and now spoon the batter into the ramekins. Add chocolate chips on top in a few of them.
Bake at preheated 350F for 15-25 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Jaggery
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Cooking Time:40-50 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
2. 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin pulp (how to get pumpkin pulp)
3. 1/3 cup of jaggery
4. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
5. 1/2 tsp baking soda
6. a pinch of salt
7. 1/2 cups of roasted chopped pecans or walnuts (or a combination)
8. 2 eggs
9. 6 tbsp of butter + 1/2 cup of olive oil (or just 3/4 cup of just olive oil)
10. 1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease ramekins or the loaf pan in which you want to bake the bread.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder,salt and baking soda into a bowl.
3. In a mix bowl add the olive oil and jaggery. Add the eggs, and whisk it together.
4. Add the pumpkin pulp to the eggs and mix well.
5. Now gently fold the flour into the pumpkin mixture till all the flour is well incorporated.
6. Add the nuts.
7. Spoon in the batter into the ramekins and bake for 15 minutes, check and bake for 5-10 minutes more if required.
8. Add some chocolate on top on some of them if preferred.
9. Cool and save them in containers. They stay good outside for a couple of days and refrigerate the left overs. Warm a bit before eating.

Warm up the bread a bit and serve with some sweet cream or vanilla ice cream :). Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Roasting a Pumpkin - How to roast a pumpkin - a pictorial

Pumpkins are so versatile and they can be used in a lot of recipes. Baked goods are tastier when the pumpkin is roasted and the pulp extracted rather than steamed. Pumpkin seeds are delcious when roasted so save and dry them.

Halloween pumpkins, the ones that are used for carving take a lot longer to roast and not as good for cooking. So avoid using those for baking but they might work well in cooking recipes.

The time for baking the pumpkin is dependent upon the type of pumpkin. It can be done as quickly as 20 minutes or it can take as long as 50 minutes for the halloween type hard pumpkins. Depending on the type of pumpking watch from 20 minutes on so they are not burnt .

How to roast a pumpkin?
Preparation Time:5 minutes
Baking Time:15-25 minutes (50 minutes if it is a thicker skinned pumpkin)
Ingredients

1. 1 pumpkin
2. 2 tsp of oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Clean the pumpkin, wipe dry, split in half lengthwise. Rub oil on the outside and also on the inside.
3. Sprary oil on a baking tray and place the pumpkin skin side down. Roast for 15 minutes.
4. Flip and roast on the other side for another 10 minutes till a knife inserted comes out clean.
5. With a spoon remove the pulp to a container.

Wash the pumpkin, pat dry and cut in half lengthwise and then rub some oil on the inside and outside.
Spray the tray and put the skin side facing up. Preheat the oven to 350F, and bake for 15 minutes and if required flip and cook with the skin side down for another 5-10 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes without any resistance.
Using a spoon the pulp can be easily scopped up for use.