Yesterday, I planned to bake some whole wheat bread. When I went to the pantry to get out my spare bag of whole wheat flour, it turned out that it was a bag of granulated sugar instead. How could this happen? I never run out of whole wheat flour! Last week, I ran out of both brown sugar and butter… Both are staples in my kitchen.
I seem to be having trouble keeping my kitchen stocked lately… I haven’t really been on a regular grocery shopping schedule, and I’ve been completely winging it on a meal plan. Between our busy schedules and weekly CSA shares, I have gotten away with it.
Since the CSA share doesn’t typically include whole wheat flour, though, I had to come up with something else for dinner last night since I didn’t have the ingredients for whole wheat bread. I was also running out of time since I had wasted most of the afternoon debating what to make to go with our salads for dinner. I considered some biscuits, but I didn’t have any buttermilk. I thought about muffins, but I wasn’t really in the mood. Then, I remembered the recipe for Irish Soda Bread from The Sophisticated Gourmet that I had tried a while ago (over a year!).
I thought about just making a plain soda bread, but I also knew that I haven’t done much recipe development for the blog lately, either. Since I had just made puree from 4 pumpkins that I picked from the garden, I decided to attempt a pumpkin soda bread. Everything’s better with pumpkin, right?
The bread turned out pretty well. I halved the original recipe when I was developing my pumpkin version since I only needed one loaf. It’s not a typical sweet pumpkin bread… The pumpkin flavor is subtle, but I think it definitely helped to keep the bread nice and moist. Both my hubby and I enjoyed it… It was especially tasty with a nice healthy smear of apple butter on top!
Pumpkin Soda Bread
(adapted from The Sophisticated Gourmet)
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a nonstick liner (or lightly grease), and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to remove any lumps.
In a separate bowl (or a measuring cup), whisk together the pumpkin puree and milk. Add the pumpkin and milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined.
Knead a few times by hand (the dough will be a bit sticky), then shape into a loaf and place on the prepared baking sheet. Score the loaf with a sharp knife in the shape of an X.
Bake for about 35 minutes until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Transfer to a wire rack. Cool for at least 30 minutes prior to slicing.
This sounds delicious! Bring on the pumpkin! I have only ever made quick breads with pumpkin, but I think I would love the soda bread.
I haven’t made this since I last posted it, but the addition of pumpkin is fantastic! I’ll have to try it when I make soda bread (hopefully soon!).
Thanks for the mention!
I am so ready for pumpkin season! I love anything with pumpkin in it. Must be lovely with the addition of apple butter. Did you make that yourself also?
Yum! Gorgeous & rustic, sounds like the perfect snack on an Autumn day!
Making it right now!
I love soda bread! My mom used to make that when I was little for a side with dinner all the time. This is such a nice spin on it, I have to try it!
I was just looking at another site that had soda bread. I like the pumpkin in this one. I’ll have to try it.
Great looking bread! I’m still waiting on the cans of pumpkin to show up on the shelves at the store.
what a great idea! i adore sodabread, though usually only end up making it around st. patrick’s day. an excuse to make a seasonal version (with pumpkin!) is more than fine by me.
cheers and thanks,
*heather*
What a great looking Fall bread! I tried making soda bread around St.Patties day but it was a total fail. I think it’s time to try again :)
Great looking bread. I love how you play around with recipes to make them your own. The addition of pumpkin sounds perfect right about now!
Wow. I love Irish soda bread, but I never thought to add pumpkin in there. I can’t wait to try this and enjoy all its yummy flavors.
I’ve had that happen to me before, too! Went to the pantry to get out a new bag of flour, and discovered it was actually granulated sugar. Ugh.
This bread looks lovely! I like that it has just a hint of pumpkin flavor, so I definitely want to try it. I’ll have made apple butter after this weekend too, so I’ll be ready! :-)
You totally MacGyver’d this recipe. Pumpkin is the new duct tape! hehe! Great job, Jen!!
What an awesome and creative way to use pumpkin. I would have never thought about it but it’s a genius idea.
Great job on the creativity and adapting on your feet!
Yes! Everything IS better with pumpkin…and I love soda bread, too! You are always so inspiring!
Ummm, ok, I have made this bread not even with pumpkin and it was a total disaster. You are a baking goddess!!